WHAT a good article by Kirsty Strickland (Why claiming Patel bullying is rooted in sexism is nonsense, The National, March 5) in which she describes Boris Johnson as the Tory party Feminist-in Chief. So, what I still cannot get out of my head, is visualising the cries at the dispatch box from Johnson. Tory Feminism T-shirts with “Feminist-in Chief” and accompanying T-shirts with “Under Feminist-in Chief” would surely be entirely appropriate.

That said, and even not noting the sideways smirks that Patel used to cast mantis-like towards the waiting press, she does in fact already appear to have been given the benefit of the doubt over past years over the discredited actions of her various departments’ officials, ostensibly guided by her – resultant poverty and foreign policy conflicts.

Broken up or otherwise, the Home Office is clearly in need of a written constitution, that is quality assured at all levels, which will inevitably result in the further censure of institutional racism and sexism, at all levels, both official and political, for years to come.

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This will not be a walk in the park for the “Mother of Parliaments” and inputs from other parliaments across the world will be required, much to the chagrin of the “Little Englanders”, who will oppose such change with resolution and try to invoke a Second World War spirit.

Scotland needs to have indyref2 and subsequently all the combined expertise of Scottish MSPs MEPs and MPs working to move such reserved/devolved matters forward for the people of Scotland and their parliament. This must be all-party and only by getting a Yes vote will many of these individuals feel inclined to work together to improve upon the Kingdom of Britain’s Home Office.
Stephen Tingle
Greater Glasgow

DOESN’T W D Mill Irving’s confidence (Letters, March 5) that a select few know Nicola Sturgeon’s strategy and that is how it should be, beggar belief?

The National:

Since when was the important issue of Scottish independence a matter for a “select few”?

Shouldn’t it be a matter for the thousands of marchers turning out at great inconvenience to support the cause? They’re asking – indeed, demanding – effective leadership and they’re only told to be patient, the select few have it under control?

Isn’t it naive to claim we should keep our plans under wraps to fool the opposition? Isn’t the reality that there is nothing we could ever do that Westminster’s advisers wouldn’t be fully aware of? So why don’t we just get on with it?

There has never been a campaign won ever where the marshalled troops didn’t understand what the strategy was. And they only ever persisted because the tactics being employed could easily be seen to be in pursuit of the strategy. This simple truth failed, then history records armies breaking up as troops drifted away.

Prince Charlie’s retreat from Derby ably showed this.

For others like me, Sturgeon’s actions suggest she doesn’t know what to do except fall into the age-old practice that politicians invariably do when they don’t know what to do – she’s buying time, based on hope rather than strategy.

If there had been a plan, then Boris’s rejection of the Section 30 request would have been met with a robust riposte. A holding refutation of his “justification” and demanding reconsideration, to allow the pre-prepared next step to happen, would at least have demonstrated that the leadership knew what it was doing.

That there was no such riposte firmly suggests a clear strategy doesn’t exist. You can’t have a successful strategy if you don’t have the tactics to make it work, and you don’t take an action without knowing how to follow it up.

Not only that, where is the setting of the agenda through vociferous opposition to everything that this Westminster Government is pursuing about Brexit and how it is damaging Scotland’s future – and demanding action? And we’re still being denied any input to the shaping of Brexit, while Sturgeon, by her stoic reticence, is merely seen as accepting it. All of which would help stoke support for independence.

Isn’t that what should be getting shouted from the rooftops?

Isn’t the truth that the grassroots are behaving like tigers while Sturgeon and W D Mill’s secretive “select few” are behaving like pussy cats relishing being stroked rather than preying on that which feeds our right to independence?
Jim Taylor
Edinburgh

WHILE Alister Jack’s comments on his desire for a tunnel between Scotland and Northern Ireland rather than a bridge have naturally made the headlines, his comments on EU immigrants coming to the UK to get access to our benefits and NHS are equally ridiculous.

The National:

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In its assessment on the value of EU citizens to the British economy, Oxford Economics highlighted the value of EU citizens to the British economy.

It noted that when it comes to the public finances, European migrants contribute substantially more than they cost, easing the tax burden on other taxpayers.

Migrants from the EU contribute £2300 more to the Exchequer each year in net terms than the average adult. Over their lifetimes, they pay in £78,000 more than they take out in public services and benefits – while the average UK citizen’s net lifetime contribution is zero.

UK proposals to limit immigration will therefore not only damage the economy through impacting on the workforce but taxes will have to rise as EU nationals pay far more to the public purse than British-born residents.

Unfortunately, as with many things Brexit, the facts have been cast aside in favour of small-minded British nationalism.
Alex Orr
Edinburgh