Tory peer plans

Brian Monteith's suggestion (Opinion, 22 February), that David Cameron might create peers in order to staff the Scotland Office in the event of a Tory election victory, brings back dark memories of the Thatcherite 1980s.

Throughout that decade at general elections, Scottish Office ministers would be decisively rejected at the ballot box, only to be back behind their desks several days later as the duke of this or the earl of that. This gave rise to what became known as the democratic deficit, which in turn led to Scottish Tory MPs being wiped out completely in 1997.

Have the Conservatives really learnt nothing from their years in the political wilderness? And if Mr Cameron insists on bringing back some of those who lost their seats in the great cull of 1997, will he at least have the sense of irony to appoint one of them as the Minster for Democracy?

GAVIN FLEMING

Grassmarket

Edinburgh