IT is very interesting watching the body language of the Boris apologists.

They seem to know what we don’t know about the Sue Gray investigation. Do they know in advance that there will be plenty of wee legal loopholes at the core of the “report” that will allow Boris to escape the truth and the consequences of his insult and disdain for the folk of the UK?

Meanwhile, oor Douglas frae Moray is playing the “long game” with his eye on FM’s job in Scotland and eventually the PM’s job in Downing Street.

Watch this space?

Graham Noble
Kinlocheil

SO Boris the liar is being investigated by one of his own staff!! And according to Channel 4 News, Sue Gray will not be able to give a verdict “guilty or not guilty” in her report, that’s not her remit.

So we must ask what outcome, if any, will the report contain? We all know what he has done, he has broken the law. So is this just another smoke-and-mirrors investigation debacle? Boris marking his own homework?

James Hamilton, who investigated our FM – an INDEPENDENT, well-respected man – should be brought in, and then and only then will we get a “verdict “ one way or another.

Ken McCartney
Hawick

I HAVE listened again to the “apology” given by Boris Johnson on Wednesday and I just get angrier.

What he gave was NOT an apology – a real apology means someone has accepted guilt and is sorry for their wrong judgement, action or decision and is wanting to make amends. His apology did neither and came with so many caveats and excuses it was rendered useless and more of an insult.

In the London Review of Books (December 2021), Alan Bennett in his annual diary dedicated Rudyard Kipling’s poem A Dead Statesman to the Prime Minister.

“I could not dig: I dared not rob: Therefore I lied to please the mob. Now all my lies are proved untrue And I must face the men I slew. What tale shall serve me here among Mine angry and defrauded young?”

It is not just Boris who should go but many others, none more so than Rees-Mogg for his derogatory comments which not only insults Scottish Tories but Scotland’s electorate – and as Nicola Sturgeon said, if that is what they think of Scottish Tories what hope the rest of us?

Tories only want to bleed Scotland dry like they have many other parts of the Commonwealth, and when everything is gone they will let go – at the moment Scotland is too good a cash cow.

The stench coming from Westminster is now overpowering and has reached the nose of Scotland – it must be got rid of.

Winifred McCartney
Paisley

FIT wey shuid Boris Johnson resign? He is the Tory pairty manifest after aa. His chairacter wis weel kent afore thay chose him as thair leader, he displayed aa the qualities yon clique o upper-cless heid-the-baas admire. Selfish, thochtless, barefaced leier, arrogant an waeoot ony mense.

He haes nae care or thocht fur them ablo him, an nae desire tae tak ony responsibility fur his ain gameramous behaviour.

Aa this wis weel kent o afore he wis elected heid o the Tories an Prime Meinister o the runt o Britain. Noo we hae DRoss an quine Lady Lundin bein Holier than Thou!

Thay wir baith delichtit fan he wis gaein thaim ae tap on the shudder. Lady Lundin e’en waxed lyrical o his ability tae waffle incoherent skite in seiven Leids.

Gin yon pair haed an ounce o honour thay wuid hae refused tae wark wi sic ae cratur as Boris, but honour is something neither o thaim unnerstaun. Lea Boris whaur he is, he’s juist the man fur the darg, aathin that lot doun thare deserve.

George T Watt
Arbroath

VETERANS have asked the monarch in writing to strip Andrew of his honorary military titles, and she has eventually taken the steps necessary. We understand the usually stands by her motto of “never complain and never apologise”, but given the seriousness of the case, no doubt she had to act. I suppose better late than never. The hidden irrelevance of the royals’ self-appointed sinecures is laid bare.

The list pertaining to Andrew is astounding: Colonel of the Grenadier Guards, honorary air commodore of RAF Lossiemouth, Colonel-in-Chief of the Royal Irish Regiment and of the Small Arms School Corps; Commodore-in-Chief of the Fleet Air Arm, Royal colonel of the Royal Highland Fusiliers, deputy colonel-in-chief of the Royal Lancers and royal colonel of the Royal Regiment of Scotland.

When one considers also the myriad of organisations where he was patron, he obviously has had more “posts” than one could ever really do justice to.

When one studies the self-appointed placements now, more up front due to the impending court case, it seems the royals live in a weird other world.

It is obvious that the aforementioned organisations have survived during the inactivity of the royal prince, so are these roles really necessary? The message is that these roles and patronages have been returned to the Palace to be redistributed among the remaining royals.

This ruritanian set-up is nevertheless so over bloated in irrelevance, it needs to be reformed.

The United Kingdom is in deep existential crisis in other key institutions, the archaic Commons and Lords, the present incumbent in No 10 and other key offices of state.

John Edgar
Kilmaurs