Sir, – The Tories have lost elections in Scotland in 1959, 1964, 1966, 1970, 1974 (twice), 1979, 1983, 1987, 1992, 1997, 1999, 2001, 2005, 2010, 2011, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2019.
In the most recent election Boris Johnson received 43% of the vote. In 2017 the then prime minister Theresa May got 42.3% and in 2015 the then prime minister David Cameron got 36.8%. Neither Thatcher nor Blair in their landslides ever achieved more than 44% of the popular vote.
Each of these governments pursued wildly unpopular policies such as bank bailouts, wars, privatisation and the poll tax.
The favourite stock-phrase was always they were the “democratically elected” government so what they were doing was “legitimate”.
These same Unionist parties are trying to say that the SNP’s 45% of the vote (never achieved by any UK Government since 1979) is not a mandate for a second independence referendum.
The Tories are even ludicrously claiming their 43% is a “stonking mandate” for Brexit despite more people voting against them than for them.
The Unionists seem not to care about the blatant hypocrisy.
The Unionists are now trying to say that 55% of people voted for parties who opposed a second independence referendum.
This is another lie. Sixty-five per cent of Scots voted for parties who were either in favour of a new referendum or who did not rule it out in the second half of the current parliament.
Only the Tories and Lib Dems explicitly ruled it out and they were routed.
Smirking bufoonish public school boy ghoul Boris Johnson epitomises all the worst characteristics of the Tory upper-class Hooray Henrys.
It seems almost pre-destined that Johnson will be the last prime minister of the UK.
Alan Hinnrichs.
2 Gillespie Terrace,
Dundee.
Unionists must ‘hold nerve’
Sir, – The SNP will now shout from every rooftop that they have won their mandate for a second referendum on Scottish independence.
The clamour will be loud, incessant and passionate in the extreme; but that doesn’t make it right. Forty-five per cent of the vote is not a majority and not a mandate.
Nowhere did it say that the 2014 decision to remain in the Union is invalidated.
No matter how many times Nicola trumpets that “the will of the Scottish people must be respected”, she never answers that simplest of points.
The people spoke in 2014 and Alex Salmond promised that would be binding on us for a generation. And if it ever comes round again, following, for example, a 2021 Holyrood election success for the Nationalists when independence unequivocally is the issue, the electorate will look into the abyss separating them for the SNP promised land, see the massive risk to their jobs, pensions, mortgages, public services and security, and they will not be able to work out why that risk is worth it.
So we, the Scottish Unionist majority, need to hold our nerve, refuse to take part in the SNP narrative and get them out of Holyrood in 2021. We managed it in N/E Fife, we can repeat that across Scotland.
Cllr Tony Miklinski (Conservative).
Whitehill Farmhouse,
Cupar.
Calling Sturgeon’s bluff?
Sir, – Is amnesia as essential a quality for a successful politician as misleading and dissembling?
Nicola Sturgeon now claims the election of 48 SNP MPs gives her a mandate for a second independence referendum next year.
All the pre-election pleas to Remainers and non-Tories to “lend” the SNP their vote have disappeared down the memory hole.
The promises that a vote for the SNP was a vote to stop the Tories and stop Brexit, not a vote for independence, are mince now.
The careful election literature which avoided the i-word lest it frighten the horses suddenly means nothing.
The first minister shows no hesitation in treating those voters who took her at her word with the utmost contempt.
It is ironic that those who fell for her cynically dishonest campaign now have Boris Johnson to thank for saving them from the division and distraction of a second referendum next year.
Sturgeon well knows that Johnson will not recognise her “mandate” for one because it is bogus.
Her purpose in insisting on it is two-fold: it keeps diehard nationalists happy, and stokes grievance about Westminster “denying Scotland its will”.
Given that polls have consistently shown that the number of those ready to vote for independence is less than in 2014, that there is no sign the SNP’s abysmal record in government will improve any time soon, it is tempting to wish that Johnson would call Sturgeon’s bluff.
Cllr Linda Holt (Independent East Neuk & Landward).
Pittenweem.
Faith in the prime minister?
Sir, – The Rev John Cameron is consistent in his reluctance to believe that we Scots are not capable of taking responsibility for our own country.
Perhaps as a man of the cloth the Rev needs to have an outside force to oversee everything he does.
He always prefers that we “know our place” and let the Westminster elite rule over us.
We now have a prime minister who, when asked, couldn’t state how many illegitimate children he has, who has a reputation for being a fantasist and a liar, who has done the dirty on friends, colleagues and lovers not to mention having recently had the police at his door due to alleged domestic abuse.
This is the kind of man that Rev John Cameron considers good enough to decide our future.
Oh by the way Rev, Union Jacks are only flown on the Jack Staff of Royal Navy ships – that’s where they get their name.
Harry Key.
20 Mid Street,
Largoward.
‘Childish and sarcastic’ view
Sir, – As someone who writes periodically to your column and has perhaps one in four of my letters published, I find it hard to accept that there are some who write to your column who are obviously published regardless of what they write.
I refer on this occasion to the Rev Dr John Cameron, a biweekly if not weekly writer to your paper, whose latest letter, which I had to read several times to understand, beggars belief.
What a childish, sarcastic, sour grapes of a letter directed at the Scottish Nationalists who won a landslide victory at the recent election. It comes across to me that he has written this to salve his “petted lip” after his beloved Unionists were almost wiped out in Scotland.
Some people can accept defeat graciously while others sulk and deride.
It surprises me that a man of the cloth can be so cynical in his observation of an election outcome.
Robert Donald.
Denhead Farm,
Ceres.
FM should ‘stop whinging’
Sir, – Ms Sturgeon’s latest beef is that she has a mandate for a new referendum whereas Boris Johnson does not have a mandate for Brexit.
She should consider the facts before whinging about this.
Jill Stephenson.
Edinburgh.
