I IMAGINE that I am not alone in being totally scunnered by the almost complete lack of media coverage of the Scottish Greens during the election campaign ("Harvie says SNP must match 'rhetoric with action' over climate", The Herald November 14) Herald today. Especially appalling is the boycott of the Scottish Green in any televised debate.

The world is facing a sixth extinction – floods, fires, melting ice sheets, annihilation of numerous species, and a dismal future for millions of vulnerable people throughout the world. Surely now is the time when all political parties should be prioritising what really matters – mitigation against, and adaptation to, the effects of climate change.

Instead (most of) the political parties continue their shambolic and acrimonious debates about Brexit. Brexit won't matter one way or the other if planet earth goes down the tube.

Vote Green if you can. If not, plead with your candidates to give some thought to a sustainable and green future.

Rose Harvie, Dumbarton.

YOU report a speech in Coventry by the elected leader of the Tory party smearing opponents by telling lies about a non-existent “coalition” ("Beware the 'Technicolor coalition of chaos' says PM", The Herald, November 14). Worth reporting, certainly, but as this same person comes to Scotland and repeatedly refuses to meet any of the public in this country, his comments should be relegated to a small paragraph buried among the small ads. The Scottish media should not give this Baron Munchausen figure anything other than straight reportage and certainly not “big up” his lies and exaggerations.

GR Weir, Ochiltree.

BORIS Johnson has hit the nail on the head with his "Technicolor coalition of chaos" remark. Labour simply has no idea what it wants, the Liberal Democrats simply want to cancel a highly democratic vote, the Greens claim the climate emergency is so important yet they are not standing in every seat and the SNP wants to insist a democratic vote for independence, should it occur, be acted upon positively whilst utterly ignoring the fact that it has refused to accept the highly democratic 2014 and 2016 referendum results itself. Nicola Sturgeon has gone further by attacking Westminster as " not working" but ignoring the salient fact that her own SNP M's have sabotaged it at every stage, even to the effect that now a Scottish budget cannot be set partially due to SNP intransigence. A hung parliament will simply prolong the agony. Boris Johnson is right.

Dr Gerald Edwards, Glasgow G77.

I HAVE a few comments regarding Ian Lakin's letter (November 14).

First, that the 2014 referendum "would be a once in a generation opportunity". That expression did not appear in any written agreement. It may well have been a throw-away remark made by someone somewhere but so what, that's politicians for you.

Second, there never was any suggestion that Scotland would "crash out of the EU". Scotland would have retained its EU membership throughout the separation negotiations with the UK, before resuming its membership on becoming an independent nation. Anyone who thinks that Europe would deny membership to such a worthwhile country as Scotland is ignoring reality.

Third, the debate on Mr Lakin's so-called "Union Dividend" really demands a thesis longer than your Letters Pages. Into the calculations would come the value of the abominable nuclear submarine base on the Clyde, the disproportionate cost that Scotland has paid in soldiers' lives in various British-led conflicts and, of course, the cash that was drained from Scotland's economy during 40 years of Westminster mismanagement of the UK economy. If Mr Lakin really believes that the net benefit is to Scotland then he should ask himself why the rUK is so desperate to keep hold of us.

As for the so-called UK single market, trade between an independent Scotland and rUK would continue, or does Mr Lakin believe that the people of England and Wales would deny themselves the pleasure of our world-beating products? In this context, I say "England and Wales", because after Brexit the likelihood is that Northern Ireland will soon be part of a United Ireland within the EU.

Mr Lakin and Unionists like him should stop obsessing on events of more than five years ago and start worrying about the situation Scotland finds itself in right now through no fault of its own. The political landscape of the UK has changed over that time much more radically than it has over any similar period in the 70 years of my life.

John Jamieson, Ayr.

I FOUND the letters from Ian Lakin and Alan McGibbon (November 14) interesting. The contribution from Mr Lakin raises that old chestnut that the last independence referendum was on the basis that it would be "once in a generation".

Mr Lakin and all of the others who raise that point as a justification for not having another referendum need look no further than the contribution from Mr McGibbon, who makes the universally understood point that politicians are united in their inability to tell the truth.

John S Milligan, Kilmarnock.

WHY does every candidate across the parties refer to cash sums as being in “real terms”?

Are there “unreal terms” being hidden from us?

Gordon Casely, Crathes.