ROBERT McCaw was absolutely correct in his analysis of why the Queen is going to appoint the new Tory prime minister in Balmoral. It will be used repeatedly by the BBC and other BritNat propaganda channels that this was a PM appointed in Scotland – a PM imposed on Scotland by uncaring, selfish and hard-hearted Tory party members.

It really didn’t matter which one was elected – they are both equally bad. A former chancellor who oversaw corruption during the Covid pandemic, with billions going missing and not investigated. He even had the cheek to claim he wanted to stop organisations taking the Government to court to find out what it had done with our money!

Of course he doesn’t want us to know how much the Tories robbed the public purse using Covid as an excuse! Let’s not forget, too, that he was also fined for attending lockdown parties while preaching to the rest of us that we weren’t allowed to visit dying relatives.

READ MORE: Douglas Ross clashes with SNP's Ivan McKee over UK Defence Journal's George Allison 'abuse'

And as for the other candidate – she’s another puppet put in place by the Tory funders and doesn’t have an original (or any) thought in her head. She embarrassed the UK as a Foreign Secretary who was humiliated by Russian politicians as she couldn’t distinguish between the Black Sea and the Baltic, she’s hinted that we’re at war with France as she doesn’t like Macron. And has failed in almost every post she’s had.

And let’s not forget both candidates wanted to ignore Scotland’s democratically elected leader and Government, one which has had an independence referendum as a priority in numerous elections. It’s not for them to decide the future of Scotland – it’s for the people of Scotland.

Of course the idea of appointing the new PM through Zoom appeals as they are nothing more than a pair of zoomers anyway!

Cllr Kenny MacLaren

Paisley

It is surprising that the BBC has still not found someone in the mould of the late Rikki Fulton to present the “news” on Reporting Scotland. The happy smiles of Sally Magnusson provide a stark contrast to seemingly deliberately depressing reports, often selectively focused on relatively exceptional individual complaints without appropriate context, which only the Rev IM Jolly could sincerely enthuse over persistently presenting.

Regrettably, this sad tone is repeated across much of the UK mainstream media where examples of Scottish innovation and leadership are often suppressed while those of perceived setbacks or failings of the Scottish Government are regularly highlighted without fundamental background information and out of all proportion to current events within the UK and beyond.

As someone who writes letters to The National and on occasion attempts to address some of the misguided comments, if not misleading statements and at times blatant lies, printed in other “newspapers”, it is disappointing to realise that since 2014 professional reporting standards within Scotland have apparently further deteriorated.

Even papers that proclaim impartiality are increasingly reluctant to genuinely strive for a fair and reasonable balance in their political/constitutional reporting.

Meanwhile in newspapers published across the UK extremist language is permitted to be associated with those seeking self-determination for Scotland – even to the extent of wrongly and scurrilously implying that those who support independence “hate the English”, significant actions evidencing far-right British/English nationalism south of Hadrian’s Wall often pass without critical comment – if reported at all.

This deplorable situation requires all of us who support Scotland’s right to self-determination to work harder on emphasising our essentially common goals while confidently accepting that different political views on the path forward once independence is achieved will be democratically decided by the Scottish electorate.

The style of humour immortalised by the Reverend IM Jolly will still be greatly appreciated in an independent Scotland but I know someone like him will not be needed to read our news night after night.

Stan Grodynski

Longniddry, East Lothian

I’d really like to know how Ofgem calculates what an average household is. It says the average household dual fuel will increase to £3549 a year. Yet my bill is going up by more than £4300, not going to, but up by! I don’t stay in a mansion, it’s a fairly average three-bedroom, ex-council-type house.

So why is my household – which I consider not to be too far away from average going to be paying more than double the fuel cap?

Kenneth Sutherland.

Livingston

During my schooling, I was taught only about the pink bits and even then, very little about Scotland. In my lifetime, I have watched many countries shrug off their old, and often mispronounced colonial names, (sometimes, more than once).

However, Bob Cotton’s excellent Long Letter, (Sep 3), slipped up with suggesting that Myanmar was once known as Borneo, a slip of the pen I’m sure. Burma was the name, and burnt into our minds was the horrendous story of the building of the infamous Khwae Yai bridge, anglicised of course in the film The Bridge over the River Kwai’.

Christopher Bruce

Taynuilt