'Brexit is as big a con as a Nigerian prince email' - Readers Letters

Boris Johnson has effectively said that a catastrophic No-Deal Brexit is now inevitable (Scotsman, October 16). This is a man who lied about giving £350 million per week to the NHS, who lied about an “oven ready deal”. A man who is incapable of telling the truth. He is now saying to the EU the UK wants unrestricted access to the Single Market without following the rules.

Boris Johnson has suggested a no-deal Brexit is likely

Johnson will now sell his failure as the fault of Johnny Foreigner. This will play well with the Brexit supporters in England. They are so stupid they will support a course of action that is against their economic interests.

Johnson and the Tories will lace their Brexit poison with reactionary filth. This will be filled with hate-filled invectives against the EU, refugees, the legal profession, socialists, liberals, the SNP, and the judiciary. The new Tory imperium will be based upon nostalgia for Empire and white supremacy.

Since the imposition of austerity a decade ago; The Tories have created a false narrative based upon media propaganda. They created a façade, a public-facing veneer. The image of a successful financial system that must not be regulated or taxed.

This false self narrative was propped up by a sycophantic lackeys in the media. The austerity fetish then moved into Brexit. The hard-right of the Tories were able to deflect anger at eviscerated living standards away from the bankers on to refugees and the EU.

The creation and maintenance of this façade has been fuelled by a pathological hubris on behalf of the Tories. Now the turbo-charged assault on the welfare state and hard-won rights is coming in the guise of "getting Brexit done". All cheered by clueless rubes waving the Union flag.

As well as this bonfire of rights; many Tory donors stand to make a fortune from Brexit. This based on short-selling. They will make money from everyone else's economic misery.

Many of these super-rich Brexit backing billionaires have left the UK to avoid tax. All while claiming bailout money from the taxpayer to prop up their Covid-19 hit businesses.

Quite simply Brexit is a con. It's like a scam email from Nigeria. It's as worthless as a "degree" from Trump University. Its simply a way for ths greedy to get even more. The chaos will be devastating. Especially with a clown like Boris Johnson in charge.

Alan Hinnrichs

Gillespie Terrace, Dundee

Bad losers

Your editorial (17 October) assured us we would suffer from Boris Johnson's foolishness. What? How about getting the facts right: the PM personally voted against Brexit. What he has done is honour the voters whose majority was for Brexit. I see that as acting democratically.

As has been repeated many times a no deal is better than a bad deal. Far better now that we roll up our sleeves and get on with it instead of all this whingeing from those bad losers.

Tim Flinn

Garvald, East Lothian

Bin the rhetoric

Boris Johnson's threats of a no-deal Brexit in the middle of the pandemic he is currently mishandling simply underline the fact that the words pragmatism and common sense don't feature prominently his vocabulary.

How, exactly, can any nation in our global world reclaim sovereignty? The fact is, such a state of autonomy is an illusion. We all share rules, laws and standards unless we are determined to become North Korea Mark II.

The double whammy of a no-deal and CD19 is too much to bear. He should bin his kamikaze rhetoric and Brexit slogans which made no sense in the first place and act for the economic and sustained good of the country.

Rev Dr John Cameron

Howard Place, St Andrews

Diversity in rugby

Graham Bean’s article (Scotsman, 14 October) details the Scottish Rugby team’s reliance on the residency route to International selection. So, it is reported Scotland has players from South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and England in the squad.

Townsend is quoted as arguing that his squad reflects ‘the cosmopolitan nature of modern society’. This poses some questions: Why are all these players from these diverse groups white? In an era when almost every top tier rugby country has a Fijian or other Pacific islander in their squads, why has Scotland never selected a Fijian for an International match? What is the SRUs position on the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement?

In 1995 Nelson Mandela was presented to the two finalists of the Rugby World Cup on an extremely optimistic day – apartheid had just ended. Sadly, neither team in that final was Scotland, but one team reflected true ‘diversity’ and the other did not.

Although South Africa won, I would argue that the true winners on the day were the team that reflected the greatest diversity and that was the English team. Fijians and Pacific islanders continue to feature in the English selection process and that makes for exciting and highly entertaining games. Scotland might learn from this.

Iain Allan

Morningside, Edinburgh

Station to station

It is really good to see Kintore railway station reopened again (Scotsman, 16 October). Readers should be aware that this is but one more step along the way for the Aberdeen-Inverness Improvement Project, and nowhere near “one of the final pieces in the jigsaw puzzle”.

The whole line improvement was fourth priority project of the 2008 Strategic Transport Projects Review with the target (initially by December 2016) of an hourly service frequency between Aberdeen and Inverness and of journey time reductions of 20 minutes to no more than two hours end-to-end.

Passengers from Insch, Huntly, Keith and stations further north still await the luxury of even one service per hour to and from Aberdeen.

The long stretches of single track line north of Inverurie only permit a variable frequency of trains nearer to one every two hours. They have no service arrivals in Aberdeen between 09.30 and 11.25 nor a return between the busy 15.25 and 17.20 trains. These are times at which much latent passenger demand remains unsatisfied.

There is a lot still to do to modernise this railway.

R J Ardern

Drumdevan Road, Inverness

Honour Haining

Like your correspondent Gus Logan (Letters, 14 October) I too believe that the brave teacher Jane Haining, who would not abandon her Jewish pupils and was sent to Auschwitz, should be held high in Scotland's collective memory. In Budapest, Jane Haining Rakpart, a prominent street, takes her name. It is a poignant compliment, and also a spur to Scots towns and cities to reciprocate so as to honour Haining in her own land.

I'm pleased to say that Loanhead in Midlothian is to have a Haining Park which has been named after this heroic woman. Our county is twinned with a nearby part of Hungary, which is a plus, but any council in Scotland wishing to pay tribute to one who gave her life in opposing racism will find no better model to follow.

Cllr Peter Smaill. Provost

Currie Mains, Borthwick, Midlothian

Taxing question

Brian Wilson’s excellent piece (Scotsman, 17 October) concerning the latest polling figures, supposedly in favour of breaking up the UK, lifted my sprits considerably.

The figures he quotes from Irish Republic polls, on Irish Unity, where, when ‘’if it means an increase in tax’’ were added to the question and the pro majority fell from 74 to 37 per cent, when you think about it, are simple common sense. The crucial factor is the wording of the question asked. No normal person votes to be taxed more.

I am inclined to agree with his estimate of there being a hard core of mostly zealot Scots, around 20 per cent, desperate to break up the UK. Anything substantially more are easily hoodwinked fellow travellers who tend to drift whatever way the wind blows.

Alexander McKay

New Cut Rigg, Edinburgh

What’s in a name?

Congratulations to Grant Frazer for researching the word "Tory" in his quest for material to hurl at the dastardly foe (Letters, 16 October)

Tóraí is indeed the Irish for bandit, robber or outlaw, but Mr Frazer leaves out the most interesting part of the tale. "Tory" first entered the English language in the 1690s as a term of abuse used by the old Whig Party, seeking to draw comparison between their parliamentary opponents and Irish irregular soldiers (also known as Raparees) waging guerilla attacks against the forces of William III, the Whigs' choice for king in the First Jacobite War.

Ironically, the ancestors of the future Conservative Party backed William's Catholic rival James II, grandfather of Bonnie Prince Charlie, who is seen (incorrectly) as an icon of early Scottish Nationalism by some of our ardent patriots.

Martin O’Gorman

Littlejohn Road, Edinburgh

White Riot policed

After watching Sky Arts’ tortuous White Riot, about Rock Against Racism – the sort of historical revisionism that would make even David Irving blush – one is tempted to ask how much longer will the Guardianista classes attempt to rewrite history?

Will it be until people believe The Clash were bigger than The Beatles, rather than a tenth rate pub band who sold far less records than their rivals because, um, they weren't much good?

Or will it be when people finally get an answer to what happened to all the money RAR raised but vanished? Four decades later and we are still no nearer the truth.

No wonder Malcolm McLaren refused to allow the Sex Pistols to have anything to do with it – he knew a great rock 'n' roll swindle when he saw one.

Mark Boyle

Linn Park Gardens, Johnstone, Renfrewshire