Readers' Letters:

It may seem absurd to suggest that Boris Johnson and Nicola Sturgeon have a lot in common, but for dogged persistence, defiance, delusion and deceit they have few equals.

Ms Sturgeon's repeated, uncharacteristic bouts of amnesia during the Salmond enquiry, or refusal to acknowledge multiple policy failures, bear the same hallmarks as Mr Johnson's convenient forgetfulness on numerous occasions. With trite phrases such as “I apologise” and “we will learn from this” they both live, or in Mr Johnson's case, lived, in the hopeful belief that the electorate would absolve them of their accumulating catalogue of duplicious blunders.

Ms Sturgeon continues on her long journey to the Utopian sunlit highlands of Independence. She insists that she “speaks for the people of Scotland”, a boast that singularly fails to match reality, but although her party holds 63 seats, they only command 27 per cent of the popular vote. Similarly, the timing mechanism of Mr Johnson's “oven ready Brexit” that would led us to a brave new world of unprecedented prosperity is clearly faulty. His final despairing claim that he held a “colossal voters’ mandate” that entitled him to remain in office was as misleading as is the First Minister's abuse of the truth.

As the SNP rejoices in Mr Johnson's imminent departure their leader would do well to reflect on a biblical reference (Romans 2:1) which states that “You have no excuse who pass judgement on another. For on whatever grounds you judge the other, you are condemning yourself because you who pass judgement do the same things” otherwise known as "the pot calling the kettle black". A shoogly peg comes to mind.

Nicola Sturgeon meets Prime Minister Boris Johnson at Bute House in 2019 (Picture: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty)

Neil J Bryce, Kelso, Scottish Borders

Cut taxation

All contenders for the Conservative leadership pledge to reduce tax. This is a good thing, as personal taxation will never come close to funding the needs of government or reducing its already vast debt. Last year income tax yielded £223 billion which, when compared with the thousands of billions created from thin air by the banks, and by government itself, is a small sum. Proof is that the national debt has risen without question from £350bn in 1997 to £2,500bn today, and quantitative easing has reached a total of £895bn. No level of personal taxation could ever have produced those vast sums, that have allowed Britain to live beyond its means.

So let us reduce personal taxation and replace it with magic money. Perhaps even abolish PAYE altogether? The effect on morale and health would be good, and people would stand a chance of paying today’s increased bills, instead of relying on government handouts. A permanent solution, in fact.

Malcolm Parkin, Kinnesswood, Kinross

Spare time

It is bad news for poor Nicola Sturgeon as all politicians have now closed down the Indyref2 prospect for at least another decade.

It now seems that the dream of a second referendum in 2023 is a dead duck and Ms Sturgeon should now consider what to do with the time and money set aside for it.

Perhaps she may now find time to tackle the Scottish NHS system which is coming apart at the seams, or see how she could start creating Scottish jobs instead of closing down our offshore oil/gas operations.

Alternatively, she could run a competition asking for ideas from the electorate on how to use her time productively in helping Scotland better itself.

Dennis Forbes Grattan, Bucksburn, Aberdeen

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