NOW that The National has informed its readers about the number of people who were gored and what injuries they sustained at the first running of the bulls at the San Fermin Festival this year, as well as how many people have been gored over the years, (Three men gored in first bull run of the year at festival, The National, July 8), perhaps it will now let us know how many bulls have been injured and tortured, as well as being killed, this year and over the years – or does this not matter?

The report also tells us that these particular bulls, from the Cebada Gago ranch, are renowned for being “particularly fierce”, because they have traditionally caused more injuries. This comes across as if this were some kind of fault of the bulls for being so fierce and so causing more injuries.

Instead, The National should be reporting this in a condemning manner and, better still, helping to campaign to have this cruel spectacle stopped or, at least, to discourage its readers from attending this and similar events. Those who attend such events who are injured are only getting what they deserve.
Sandra Busell
Edinburgh

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Scots who voted Tory have made a costly mistake

IT didn’t take very long for Douglas Ross to find out who his master really is (Ross the ref gets yellow card over WASPI vow lie, The National, July 8).

After making a pledge to the WASPI women to fight their corner, he slinks sheepishly along with the other Scottish Tory MPs into the back benches of Westminster and is never seen or heard from again, unless he is instructed to vote for the lame duck May.

This is typical of these wastrels and is worrying on several levels.

The first is that there is no way Ross or any of the other charlatans around him will be minded or allowed to stand up for the citizens of Scotland unless it suits Saint Theresa, so those who voted the likes of him into Westminster, possibly as a protest vote, have a lot to answer for. They have deprived our nation of useful seats which were previously filled by strong, dedicated SNP MPs who most definitely fought for the nation, and incidentally, had the highest attendance records of all MPs!

To deprive the nation of the experience and political guile of Angus Robertson, Alex Salmond, George Kerevan and Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh and replace them with Ross and his Tory yes men is unforgivable. Those and the others who lost their seats are a great loss to Scotland at Westminster and not in your wildest dreams can you imagine the Tory replacements doing such a dedicated, honest job for Scotland.

I wonder if those who voted for them now realise just what a potentially costly blunder they have made.
Ade Hegney
Helensburgh

WHY are the WASPI women surprised by Douglas Ross reneging on his promise to support them by getting the pension fiasco sorted in their favour? He is a Tory after all, and to be a Tory politician being a hypocrite is a requirement. If you can also tell a few porky pies as well, you might achieve a ministerial post.
Norman Henderson
Clydebank

HAVEN’T we got to hand it to those Tory Brexiteers for brazen cheek? Isn’t it revealing that Liam Fox is already claiming that the BBC and mainstream media are making it difficult for the Mayhem project to negotiate the Brexit they claimed they could get?

However, didn’t anyone with even half a wit always know that Brexit was an economic disaster in the making and they had absolutely no prospect of getting anywhere near a decent Brexit? Because isn’t a “decent Brexit” the clearest political example of an oxymoron?

So, wily old Fox is getting his excuses in early, mistakenly thinking we can’t see through his ploy, as he blames everyone else rather than the vested interests and buffoonery of his own team pandering to the endemic sickness within the Tory Party.

What has clearly been revealed through his preparatory excuses is that the Tories intend to career headlong into the economic wilderness, and deliberately persist in the full and certain knowledge of what they are doing, and the harm that they have now revealed they know will come of it following their assured failure to “negotiate” their impossible deal.

And let’s not forget Corbyn’s role in this. He worked against EU membership, consistently voted against it, yet hypocritically articulated official Labour Party policy to Remain (albeit weakly) and then returned to form by failing to defend his party’s policy after the Brexit vote which an overwhelming two-thirds of the electorate did not consent to. Who could reasonably trust this man or his party?

Don’t the political machinations of these individuals and their parties with widely understood dire economic consequences for us all verge on an almost criminal irresponsibility?
Jim Taylor
Edinburgh

DURING the General Election and since, much has been made by the Unionist Britnats of the divisiveness of the Scottish constitutional debate.

Ironically, all the divisive rhetoric came from them. Every Scottish institution that was remotely connected with the Scottish Government was trashed for the sake of political expediency.

The health service, the economy, fishing, farming, the police, the firemen – the list is endless.

The truth is that the so-called Scottish Labour Party, the Scottish Tory Party and the Scottish LibDems would prefer Scotland’s economy and infrastructure to fail.

The fact that the poorest people in our communities are suffering does not even ping on their radar.

Despite being given never-ending platforms for non-stories by the British Bullhorn Corporation and the usual-suspect paper tigers, support for independence is high. In short, nobody believes a single word they say.
Mike Herd
Highland

IN the immediate aftermath of Winnie Ewing’s victory at the Hamilton by-election in 1967, Quintin Hogg was interviewed on TV by the BBC. It was before he became both Lord Hailsham and the Lord Chancellor.

The interviewer asked: “Isn’t it strange that the Scots have a nationalist party, the Welsh have a nationalist party and the English don’t.” To which Quintin replied: “Ah but they do – the Conservative Party”!
David Ashford
Isle of Skye

DEAR Ruth, The camouflage isn’t working. I can still see you.
Richard Easson
Dornoch