MICHAEL Fry unabashedly entertains the notion that removing or reducing extraordinary impediments that limit ability to fully participate in the democratic process amounts to having the state “select for its favours one particular category of person”, and that this presages total state selection of candidates for elected office. But that may not be the worst of the silliness on display here (Councillor’s path proves the need for the SNP to win over Conservatives, August 14).

Mr Fry’s account of Ashley Graczyk’s “conversion” is woefully misguided. Her every comment on the matter indicates that she was not so much won over to the SNP and convinced by the case for independence as driven to abandon the Tories and reject the Union. Her conversion is attributable less to a glorious epiphany about the merits of the SNP and the benefits of independence and more to a grim realisation of how appalling the present-day Tory party is and recognition of the fact that the Union is irreparably broken and increasingly deleterious to Scotland.

READ MORE: Councillor’s path proves the need for the SNP to win over Tories​

This throws a very different light on the vocal condemnation of the Tories which Michael Fry finds distasteful and considers counter-productive. While it may be reasonable to have some qualms about the manner in which execration of the Tories is sometimes expressed, the example of Ashley Graczyk strongly suggests that we should doing much more to encourage Conservatives – and conservatives – in Scotland to question their allegiance to a party which bears little relation to the one which enjoyed such massive support in 1955. And which suffers fatally by comparison.

By the same token, the manner of Ms Graczyk’s conversion implies that, at least as much as we try to win Tories over to the idea of independence, we should be urging them to question their assumptions and preconceptions regarding the Union. We should be doing all we can to induce them to take a long hard look at what the Union actually means for Scotland.

Of course, the SNP must always strive to be the natural home for all who put the welfare of Scotland’s people before the dubious interests of the British state. It is, after all, the national party of Scotland. The party of the entire nation. But there can be nothing wrong with pointing out to genuinely Scottish Tories that they are in the wrong place.

Peter A Bell
via thenational.scot

THERESA May is desperately trying to find a way to let bigot Boris off the hook, all to save her own worthless and pathetic hide.

There is a stark contrast between the muted response to Johnson’s anti-Islam assault and the hysterical smear campaign against Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and his supporters, based on bogus accusations of anti-Semitism.

Johnson is, as always, an opportunist and a hypocrite. His professed “dislike” for “any attempt by any, invariably male, government to encourage” the facial veil, naturally does not apply to Saudi Arabia, which is not mentioned in his column.

Boris Johnson has met with Trump strategist Steve Bannon and decided the path to Downing Street is paved with hatred.

Criticism of the religion of Islam and bigotry towards Muslims are two different things. Right-wing bigots and fascists try to muddle the distinction.

Nobody is speaking out against the Haredi Burqa, which is Jewish.

The Boris Johnson affair proves that not only has democracy departed the UK, but also compassion, empathy for others, morality, integrity, respect for truth, justice, faithfulness, and self-respect. Civilisation is now a hollow shell. There is nothing left but greed and coercion and the threat of coercion.

Alan Hinnrichs
Dundee

GEORGE Kerevan’s Monday article on Boris Johnson and populism was timely (Chaos has a habit of favouring populists, August 13). Whatever we think about the debate over burkhas and other wild statements made by Mr Johnson, there is a danger of seeing him simply as a Bertie Wooster figure, good for a laugh. Chaos in government can lead to a populist dictator that can take us into even darker times than the present government at Westminster has done. Mussolini and Hitler were both caricatures, but what they unleashed on the world when they rode the tiger of populism should be enough of a warning.

READ MORE: Chaos has a habit of favouring populists like Boris Johnson

Boris Johnson may have no sense of history but surely some in the Tory party and many in the electorate should see the signs.

Iain Whyte
North Queensferry

THE more I look at the Tory Brexit, the more it resembles Labour’s disastrous Iraq war. No-one in power can explain why it’s necessary, no-one knows how to pull it off, and no-one knows how to get out when it goes horribly wrong.

The blithe confidence of the UK establishment, which believes that through bluster, aggression and talking loudly at foreigners – ie 27 other European nations – it can achieve anything however unlikely.

Ask yourselves this, Scotland has the option of the lifeboat of independence and fast-tracked EU membership. Is that better than a Scotland tied to Brexit Britannia, with Theresa May dragging the UK under? It’s time to cut the rope.

B Griffiths
Denbigh, Wales

THE Advocate General for Scotland, Lord Richard Sanderson Keen, stated in his submission to the UK Supreme Court that: “The UK Parliament is sovereign, the Scottish Parliament is not”. This is simply not true. Sovereignty cannot be imposed from without. To do so is nothing other than dictatorship.

Paul Steinbett
Glasgow