AH, Lesley Riddoch is right on the ball as always. This election is most definitely “gloves off time” for Scotland. What I saw on the TV last night was the ridiculous spectacle of a multi-millionaire UK PM who evidently can’t afford an umbrella announcing an English General Election, and his rival and opposition party leader draped in Union flags. They may as well have been standing together.

If our people cannot see the utter contempt for Scotland captured in this cynical charade alone then it certainly is time for the SNP to go on what Lesley calls “ an immediate and unapologetic recruitment and fundraising drive”. Loads of us have been constantly screaming for action, in these columns and elsewhere, for the SNP to get over their apparent difficulty in mentioning the “I” word and unite with Believe in Scotland and the entire Yes movement to get our country out of a Union which is doing untold damage to our economy, our identity and our welfare.

READ MORE: Lesley Riddoch: It’s gloves aff time and John Swinney must accept high stakes of this election

Our right to, and urgent need for, independence must be talked up by our politicians at every opportunity. They must lay out a clear and comprehensible path which gives clear and comprehensible answers to questions on border, currency, taxation, pensions and monarchy which, like it or not, many people want and weren’t given in 2014.

And please hear this – lengthy tomes of white papers are not the way to do this. We can no longer allow another government in another country to control our budget and deny us the right to borrow, to interfere with our social policy, misuse our natural resources to our disadvantage and starve our public services.

The evidence is now overwhelmingly obvious and time is shorter than ever. If the SNP and the Yes movement do not get our act together now after 10 wasted years, I believe we will never have another chance. So, politicians please no more urging, asking, waiting, procrastinating and apologising. Get the gloves off!

Noirin Blackie
Haddington

“I WILL sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols” is a famous Bible passage. The first vote was possibly cast within seconds of Rishi Sunak publicly announcing a 2024 General Election. Rishi went off like drowned rat after the heavens opened. Has a divine hand already voted in wet fury against the sleaze of the Tories and their cynical ill-treatment of ordinary British citizens?

James Hardy
via email

SO it’s July 4. I know it’s a Tuesday, but June 4 would have been preferable. In that way we would only have to endure a two-week election campaign. All the parties would save a fortune in printing election literature and buying advertising space. A fortune the SNP currently does not have. The public would not have to suffer the six weeks of dubious uncosted election promises, leaflets with multi-coloured graphs claiming only the SNP/Labour/Tories can beat the SNP/Labour/Tories, numerous presidential-style TV debates (probably without SNP or Alba representation) and lots of mutual political name-calling.

The SNP seem to object to July 4 on the basis it is during the school holidays. In fact, in some local authorities it is not. I seem to remember a promise by the former SNP leader that we would be having a referendum during the October 2023 school holidays. I would have thought the opportunity to say something like “make this Scotland’s independence day” was a once-in-a-lifetime (oops) election gift to the SNP.

READ MORE: Watch Stephen Flynn's brilliant response to question on options facing English voters

30% of the vote, as predicted by the most recent option polls, will see the SNP lose of many of its seats to Labour and possibly a few to the Tories. Sadly the political mountain to climb is about the height of Ben Nevis. Years of inactivity on the independence cause and a concentration on policies of interest to only a very few voters have seen a steady decline in both SNP membership and support for the party since its high point in 2014.

I hope the new (recycled) SNP leader recognises that support for independence seems to be holding fast at nearly 50%. Perhaps it is not too late to appeal to that wider section of the electorate. However, to do that there has to be a firm commitment that we are not voting SNP just to have more of the same – sending SNP MPs to simply sit on the Westminster green benches for five more wasted years.

Glenda Burns
Glasgow

COULDN’T agree more with Richie Venton’s brilliant letter in Thursday’s edition. Politics is a dirty game played by (mostly) dirty people. It's also a lucrative game, and I’ve no doubt that the easy money is the main attraction for the hundreds of lying charlatans who grace the monkey house at Westminster and, to a lesser degree, the seats at Holyrood.

Combine this with a supine population, most of whom can’t even be bothered to turn out to vote, and we have the continuance of inequality, corruption on a grand scale and the maintenance of a system which hands staggering sums of money to the idle rich.

Look at Starmer, Sunak and Johnson ... and don’t be surprised at the quality of these men. They are products of a bent system.

Jim Butchart
via email

READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon showed Tories 'how to do it' during Covid, top UK civil servant says

SO a July General Election has been announced. Millions of people will wake up and vote for those who promise them the most free stuff. Then they’ll go back to sleep. Politicians will vote in bills which will be Orwellian against the common people but they’ll exempt themselves. They’ll take money from people whom they hold in contempt and give it to their supporters.

Will we end up with the lesser of two evils or the evil of two lessers?

Geoff Moore
Alness, Highland