BORIS Johnson has, more than previous Prime Ministers, failed to deliver on his innumerable political guarantees. The latest is his triumphalist threat to walk away from EU talks, if necessary without a deal, the expiry date for which has passed.

We are now warned by him to prepare for the No Deal outcome. Relative to Scotland, no “advice” could be more meaningless.

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Each person living in Scotland should examine and consider very carefully the reserved matters under the devolution settlement, and then ask how preparations can be made BY SCOTLAND. The answer is they don’t exist and Johnson knows it, otherwise he would not utter such a hollow admonition.

He is in fact a complete charlatan and has no intention whatsoever of allowing us any means of improving our situation.

We, all who live in Scotland, now know the accuracy of that assertion, and also the only means by which his disastrous ambition for us can be rendered ineffective.

John Hamilton
Bearsden

I AGREE with Alan Magnus-Bennett (Letters, October 12) in attaching blame to Alister Jack for what is likely to be gridlock and traffic chaos in south west Scotland post No-Deal Brexit. He rightly points to Mr Jack and his Tory party Brexiteers for the expected crisis. The letter was in response to the Tory Secretary of State for Scotland saying that the inadequate road infrastructure in the area, which comprises Mr Jack’s Dumfries and Galloway constituency, was the fault of the SNP.

I agree with Alan and add that Brexit and its Westminster Tory backers bear entire responsibility for any ensuing road traffic congestion and disruption.

Scotland’s SNP government is in no way responsible, representing as it does the majority of Scots who voted to remain in the EU. Scotland did not choose to exit the European Union, England did, hence the crisis that awaits its south-east Channel ports. In fairness to many English Leave voters it is my view that much wilful misleading made them victims of these eventualities.

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But it is to be believed that Scotland will, in next year’s Holyrood election, show its opinion of the entire Brexit debacle and expose the absence of common sense that has typified the Johnson Tory government throughout its short time in charge at Westminster.

Its efforts in dealing with the Covid pandemic are part of this incompetence, and Mr Jack in his appointed role as “overseer” of Westminster directives in Scotland cannot exempt his chosen party’s failures by effectively attributing blame to the SNP.

Apart from which, an independent Scotland will surely tackle the practicalities of its trading relationship with Ireland, both Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic, and I believe that the main regional town of Stranraer will be a big beneficiary of this.

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It has been something of a casualty of careless local government in this neglected area of south-west Scotland, and from being a transport hub that enjoyed a big amount of knock-on tourism has become smudged with backwater status instead. Much of this economic downgrade came from transfer of the town’s ferry terminal to the hamlet of Cairnryan. While logistics of deeper water and distance-saving contributed largely to the terminal shift, it is my view that inadequate attention was accorded longer-term considerations and at the very least a review of these past judgments is overdue.

In all of this I see parallels with Brexit, for example in how short-term ideas can easily override long-term interests.

But an independent Scotland will bring needed infrastructure to south-west Scotland, something Alister Jack is unlikely to do anything meaningful about, as his part in the Brexit shambles shows.

Ian Johnstone
Peterhead

HARD to believe that David Pratt is serious in lamenting the supposed absence of what he is pleased to call the “moral leadership” of the United States (World diplomacy needs America back on stage, October 15).

Have a quick look around the world as it is today – at the chaos, the suffering, the bloodshed, then the more than 800 US military bases in more than 130 countries, and recognise that the greater part of all this horror stems directly from US so-called “leadership”.

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It matters little whether it comes from Trump or Obama or their predecessors. The US regime, an empire in all but name in its quest for planet-wide dominance, has created suffering on an unprecedented scale, with millions killed since the beginning of the “war on terror”, and many more millions displaced. And still the US regime is actively seeking and actioning regime-change operations across the globe – from Hong Kong to Iran, from Syria to Venezuela; and of course to China and Russia, with the absurd pretence that it is these countries that are the aggressors.

It is long past time we recognised the US for what it is, and has been for a very long time: a rogue state, completely dominated by a military-industrial-intelligence-media complex. This is a state that has granted itself legal authority to murder anyone, anywhere, who may be thought to be working against US interests – or kidnap them and hold them without charge indefinitely.

The relentless pursuit of whistle-blowers, massively increased under the revered Obama, continues, targetting the likes of Chelsea Manning and Julian Assange – and mainstream media commentary is largely absent. The New York Times, Washington Post, Guardian etc are subservient to power, clinging to their establishment sources, and have become part of the problem.

American moral leadership? No thanks.

Gordon Gallacher
Strathpeffer