PRITI Patel is wasting her time taking a swipe at the third in a row of hapless prime ministers over the “managed decline” of the Tory Party (Priti Patel in swipe at Rishi Sunak for presiding over ‘decline’ of Tory Party”, The National, May 13).

The Tory backers have calculated that the party has extracted every last penny out of the UK for now and are making a managed retreat to invest and grow their rewards – letting Labour in to govern for long enough to replenish the coffers before re-emerging with unlimited funds to put the Tory Party back in government.

As well as supercharging austerity, Labour will have to maximise the yield from Scotland’s natural assets for many years to pay off the mountain of accumulated debt left behind after almost a decade and a half of Tory governments, with a little help from the LibDems.

READ MORE: Bread now and jam tomorrow for public service staff in Scotland

Scotland is a country with enormous renewable natural resources that can be employed to make independent Scotland a prosperous nation where the welfare of the people takes precedence.

Alternatively it can squandered to keep the Tory backers in the City and elsewhere in the manner to which they have grown accustomed while Scots grow accustomed to existing in the manner imposed by increasingly oppressive regimes in Westminster.

Scots must re-affirm their sovereignty and take back control or they will become permanently locked into the cycle of rapacious Westminster governments.

John Jamieson South Queensferry

IN a rare moment of truth-telling, Tory Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride (pictured) admitted that the next Westminster government will raise the pension age to 68 and beyond.

This will happen regardless of whether Sunak’s blue Tories or Starmer’s red Tories win. The propaganda lie is that the state pension is becoming “unaffordable”.

On the most recent edition of Question Time, Tory MP Helen Whatley said it would take 25 years to fix the problem of raw sewage being dumped in the sea.

This was a post-Brexit cost saving method. It was passed by the lying imbecile Boris Johnson and supported by the “Scottish” branch Tory “leader” Douglas Ross and all his other fellow “Scottish” Tories. It was done to protect the private profits of the water companies down south.

This month, the Tories passed one of the most Draconian, fascistic pieces of legislation ever. This gave the police power to essentially arrest anyone on the flimsiest pretext.

This was used on those protesting the coronation of the witless Charles. So broad was the sweep that even monarchists were taken into custody. All because they were within the vicinity of protesters.

In the english local elections, many thousands of people were turned away because they didn’t have ID. This was a calculated and cynical attempt at voter disenfranchisement by the Tories.

This dirty trick was imported from the US. It was done under the guise of “combating fraud” although this doesn’t really exist within the UK.

The British Unionist Labour Party is moving rightwards. It supports Nato warmongering, economic policy dictated by big business and corrupt banks as well as attacking individual freedom. All Labour offer is competing with the Tories on right-wing policies among a narrow band of middle-class voters.

Being a Unionist in Scotland means being OK with: swimming in raw sewage; working until you are 68; and being arrested for no reason.

All to maintain a system of inherited wealth and privilege can be maintained. If you are a Unionist this is the system you support whether you admit it or not.

Alan Hinnrichs, Dundee

SCOTTISH Tory MP Andrew Bowie said on Politics Live that the tax on oil and gas has paid for half of EVERYONE’s energy bills over the last winter.

My annual bill, in spite of reducing my usage, has gone from around £1800 to very nearly £4000. The total I have received, as a pensioner, is £700. Half my costs? Aye, right! Either Bowie needs to learn how to do some simple arithmetic, or it is high time we stopped pussyfooting around with terms such as “mis-speaking” in relation to politician claims and started publicly calling a lie a lie.

P Davidson, Falkirk

IN these times of escalating interest rates, constantly rising prices, energy profits at record levels, wage levels being eroded and personal savings being pounded, I’m really struggling to recall any public appearance or statement by the Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, on how he intends to correct these important matters.

Yet another Tory guising as competent in possibly the most important office of state.

Never before (Truss government excluded) can I recall such a talentless collection of shysters.

Worrying times indeed.

Dougie Gray via email