I VOTED Remain in the Brexit referendum in 2016 and accepted the result. I have buried my concerns about Boris Johnson for a few weeks and I still hope he’ll sort things out.

I voted No at the 2014 independence referendum, have not changed my mind one iota, and I spend many hours a week campaigning to get our UK and Scottish politicians to unite to rid Scotland of this grim nationalist cult that is trying to bully, con, fantasise and Brexitise us out of the UK.

Scotland remaining in the UK is a thousand times more important to me than the UK leaving the EU and I will vote for any party or combination of parties who have the arguments and energy to achieve that, most importantly by winning the 2021 Holyrood election.

The tragedy of all this Brexit and Scexit turmoil is that neither will solve the basic disasters facing my country, including the scandalous decline in education and the disadvantage it bequeaths the next generation when it comes to competing in a world where prosperity will depend on knowledge, skills and perseverance.

Then we have our self-inflicted poor health that shackles the NHS and stops many people from putting their all into work and family life; the lack of good cheap housing that would enable families to thrive; and the looming crisis where provision of decent old-age care will be out of reach of the majority and rob hard workers of their houses and savings.

The powers to fix this are all “devolved” powers in Westminster and Holyrood, with almost nothing to do with Brussels

The UK Government has been immersed in Brexit and diverted from these issues for three-and-half years now. The nationalist government here as been happily, studiously, embroiled in Scexit for the past eight years, and only last week a bitterly-fought freedom of information enquiry finally exposed the scale of the effort and its ongoing destruction of day-to-day and strategic public administration in Scotland.

Like everyone else in the country, whether they admit it or not, I don’t know the answer to the Brexit question other than swallowing our pride and staying in, or accepting the Northern Irish backstop and and agreeing to the May deal. I do know, however, that once it is solved the SNP’s duplicity, incompetence and lack of vision or plan for Scexit will come into sharp focus.

Also coming into focus will be the Scottish opposition’s ability and desire to hold them to account and produce the policies and willingness to work together to get them voted out of Holyrood in 2021.

Allan Sutherland,

Stonehaven

IT was interesting while it lasted. The Scottish Conservative party under the direction of Ruth Davidson increased their membership, enhanced their national profile and demonstrated an individuality and sense of independence seldom witnessed in previous decades.

However Ms Davidson’s resignation as party leader has effectively ended any hope that her brand of Scottish Conservatism could possibly endure or that the traditionally slavish subservience to London has gone (“Davidson era ends as Carlaw declares: ‘We must leave EU, deal or no deal’”, The Herald, September 30).

The declaration by interim party leader Jackson Carlaw that the Scottish Conservatives will fully support the Prime Minister in recklessly launching the country off the no-deal precipice is clear evidence that normal service has been resumed and that the Conservative branch office is once more in business.

At the time of the act of Union in 1707, Daniel Defoe, the novelist, worked as a spy for the English government which wished to ascertain how agreeable the people of Scotland were to uniting with England.

Defoe reported riots in Glasgow and Edinburgh and stated that “for every Scot in favour, there are 99 against.”

Similarly, Mr Carlaw’s ill- judged support for a no- deal Brexit places him and his party totally at odds with public opinion generally and with a considerable portion of opinion within his own party.

He and Alister Jack, the Prime Minister’s appointment of Secretary of State for Scotland, are cut from the same cloth. Both are deferential to Westminster and appear colourless and unimaginative.

They are, in short, colonial governors who are appointed not to think for themselves but to do the bidding of central office, irrespective of the consequences for their party or, more importantly, on the people of Scotland.

The immortal words of Robert Burns should now be ringing in the ears of every Scottish Conservative -”We’re bought and sold for English gold, such a Parcel of Rogues in a nation.”

Owen Kelly,

Stirling

A CLACKMANNANSHIRE SNP councillor, Graham Lindsay, has stated that an English-born Tory MP should be sent ‘homeward’.

We are constantly told that Scottish nationalism is different - that it’s inclusive, not divisive.

So why are Nicola Sturgeon and then rest of the SNP hierarchy consistently silent on such matters? Maybe they are too focused on using Brexit to achieve Scexit to bother with casual discrimination north of the border?

Martin Redfern, Edinburgh