DIRECTOR of homeland security Thomas Bossert doesn’t see Trump’s latest Twitter excess, where he conducts a mock assault on a person with a CNN-logo superimposed on their head, as an incitement to violence. Well there’s a surprise!

It seems that everyone in the court of Trump will do and say anything to condone, cover up and by inference enable his bizarre and frightening behaviour via Twitter.

It seems the American public has become desensitised to this infantile bully boy’s behaviour, and in doing nothing to curb his excesses further enable and embolden him. It is said that several of Trump’s inner circle are concerned with his Twitter outbursts, but if they are then why don’t they confront him and take his damn phone away from him like one would do with a naughty child, take their toy away until they behave!

It would be in the interest of the American people and the whole of the civilised world if they did take his phone away and remind him he is not on The Apprentice now, but supposedly in charge of the most powerful nation on earth.

Grow up Trump and: “Stop, please just stop”.

Ade Hegney
Helensburgh

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Indy Scotland’s future must be a renewable one

I HEAR the call of Lesley Riddoch for a new vision that will appeal to the overwhelming majority of Scottish voters (Lesley Riddoch: The SNP can’t fight on every front ... that’s why us Yessers need to step up, The National June 29).

So try this on for size.

The year is 2057. Next week will see the completion of the Scottish rail network electrification programme with the switching on of the last section of the Fort William-to-Mallaig line. An electric-powered replica of Hogwart’s Express travelling from Fort William to Mallaig along with celebrations at stations across the country will mark the event. But this occasion signifies far more than the greening of the rail network. It is a major milestone on Scotland’s journey to become the “all electric” nation, powered by its bountiful renewable energy resources. While other countries, like England, struggle to keep the lights on, not to mention charging the batteries of the now overwhelming population of electric vehicles, Scotland along with Norway enjoys an everlasting bounty of clean, renewable energy.

As its benefits flow into all parts of our society it underpins our economy for ever and ever. What’s not to like?

Now before some of you rush to disagree with: “that’s nae possible because renewable energy is unpredictable”, listen up. Potential tidal stream power, of which we have far more than enough to supply the entire country, is not only predictable but because tidal flows around our coasts occur at different times it adds up to an almost constant power supply. It will provide the means for Scotland to independently, reliably and sustainably meet all of its future energy needs while demolishing the fiction that the country cannot survive without UK Treasury handouts.

So my vision of Scotland in which the watchword for our economy is “self-sufficiency” is one where tidal stream renewables underpin our energy needs, other renewables playing a lesser role as the use of hydrocarbons as a fuel continues to diminish.

I give to you a future that is economically sound, appealing, easy to understand and absolutely unassailable by the braying Unionist horde. It’s staring us in the face; at least that’s the way I see it.

Simples.

B Bryan
Inverness

WE Scots are always proud of our young doing well in life. And it was interesting to see how many youthful faces were among the 13 Scottish Conservative MPs. And in their first week at Westminster they clocked up some notable achievements.

First there was the Scottish Secretary’s foot-in-mouth claim of action on DUP and Barnett before he went into hiding. Sandy Shaw won Eurovision with a song that might have been written about him: “Puppet on a String”. Then it fell to one of the nice, young, personable new MPs to face up to an experienced opponent on TV to perpetrate the big “city deals explanation” (3000% gap between DUP bung and city deal undermines case for block on Scots cash, The National, July 3).

But the week’s highlight surely was the vote against lifting the one per cent pay cap. It was reported that the ten DUP votes won that for Mrs May. I beg to suggest that it was the 13 Scottish Tory votes that did it. So Scotland’s new representatives can proudly tell their constituents that it was them who ensured that the nurses in their local hospitals will not get a fair deal. And, unlike the DUP, they didn’t ask for money because Scotland already has the city deals.

Their constituents may say that was not what they voted for in the General Election. But, let’s face it, they didn’t vote FOR anything. They voted against something not on the ballot paper. Of course Colonel Ruth Davidson issued instructions, supported from the “other ranks” by Sergeant Kezia Dugdale and Corporal Willie Rennie. And orders is orders. To use military parlance, those votes were simply “cannon fodder”– look it up!

Robert Johnston
Airdrie

I HAVE discovered a new breed of dog. I call it the “DUPle”, pronounced “doople”. It is similar to the poodle to look at, but only being ten of them, they are very expensive to buy. However, they have the advantages of being already “House trained” and you don’t have to pat their heads or rub their tummies before they roll over and do your bidding. I was going to write down about licking body parts, but this is a family paper.

WH
Leven

IT’s a pity that Scottish history doesn’t seem to be taught in our schools anymore. When I was young we did Scottish history up to the Union of the Crowns in 1603 and the Union of the Parliaments in 1707.

After 1707 it was about the territories ruled by the single parliament at Westminster. How that came about has been well discussed in The National and we know it’s not a pretty story.

I appreciate with devolution both Wales and Northern Ireland have regained some control over their own destiny but their situation is still very different from that of Scotland. I wish I was more of a historian as I cannot help wondering as someone wrote the other day that there may be a route back to independence through the Act of Union of 1707.

Could this be a task for The National’s history page? Maybe in conjunction with a constitutional solicitor?

Catriona Grigg
Embo