THE pantomime season is still with us – oh yes it is. You can tell by the number of pantomime villains there are lining up to rubbish Scotland. First there was the nebulous Centre for Economic Performance, a think tank under the auspicious of the Economic and Social Research Council attached to the London School of Economics. It’s funded by the UK Government of course.

They made a big splash in the media guessing what an independent Scotland’s economy would be like. They claimed it would be rubbish – oh yes they did. Economics is a bit like the weather only not quite so predictable.

Just when you thought the coast was clear, Mrs Gove aka Sarah Vine appears centre stage. Writing in her weekly column for those to the right of Ghengis, she would like to cut off all funding to Scotland for a year and then we would all trip back to England, tails between our legs, cap in hand grovelling for more gruel – oh no we wouldn’t.

READ MORE: Sarah Vine backs UK Government's 'plot to slash cash for Scotland'

Then there is the chameleon arch-villain, BoJo the Munificent. He is going to lavish Union Jack money north of the Border, bypassing the Scottish Government because he wants us to feel grateful and anyway he believes they would spend it all in a sweetie shop. Currently he is starring in his own production of Goldilocks and the Billionaires. It is a grotesque burlesque with a finale that includes throwing sweets to the audience.

Mike Herd

Highland

ONE of the features of the Leave campaign’s success in the Brexit referendum was the use of a short and pithy slogan of “take back control” that acted as a theme of the campaign. A future independence referendum campaign would benefit from the same approach, especially as we will be subjected to a barrage of questions about what will happen to sundry matters after independence. Since independence is not about what particular decisions an independent Scotland will make but the fact they would be made in Scotland by Scotland, it might help to have a “take back control” type slogan along the lines of “Scotland will decide” to act as a theme of the campaign.

Hamish Scott

Tranent

HAS no-one realised that EVERY political party in the country (the world even?) has internal squabbles. Mostly the problem is too many leaders (or would-be leaders).

There does exist a smallish number of principled politicians who rise (or don’t) to the top of their party, but far more who get there by conniving with others who think “their guy/gal” is on the way up, and attempting to shaft/undermine the others who are seen as “rivals”.

I repeat, this behaviour exists in ALL parties and probably more than a few social clubs and religious organisations.

All this should not be allowed to overshadow the ultimate goal of the party. In the case of the SNP it’s self-government for Scotland. For the Greens, it’s fighting climate change/self-government. For the Tories, it’s keeping the “right” people in power – and I do mean right. For the Labour party, it used to be giving the workers a fair deal and improving their lives. It now seems to be keeping Westminster in charge of Scotland. Ditto for LibDems.

READ MORE: Richard Walker: Why is the SNP infighting now with independence in our grasp?

They all react (as do the press) with feigned outrage when the “opposition” displays the same behaviours which happen in their own party. Remember people, Independence is bigger than any pathetic sordid power struggles and “pay-back time” behaviours in the SNP.

By the way, I speak as a member of more than 50 years standing.

Barry Stewart

Blantyre

PLEASE, please, will someone at the top of the SNP communicate to every MSP, MP and party member to stop with immediate effect using all and any social media. Just shut up and grow up.

You are causing a perception in the country that you are all about cabals and special interest groups. You are, I suspect but keep quiet on social media. Use the phone and speak to each other. It is less easy to be abusive that way and it is not public. It is also useful to increase understanding.

I am not a party member just a Scot that desperately wants independence. You the party of independence are not helping. Please gonna no.

Robert Anderson

Dunning

LUKE Graham, the former Tory MP, has been sacked from Boris Johnson’s Union Unit after the furore surrounding the Prime Minister’s disastrous trip to Scotland (Only Scot on Boris Johnson’s Union Unit is sacked over indyref2 dispute, thenational.scot, February 3).

It seems he incurred the wrath of the PM for not doing his job properly to enhance the image of the Union and the PM to the natives over the Border. He has been “whacked like a mole” and a non-Scot has replaced him. No Scots are on the group to save the Union as they are now untrustworthy to deliver. You could not make it up!

The poor laddie has lost his wee sinecure, is out of favour and has been sent packing. It seems the Union Jack-shirted wing is failing and has been rebooted. Will Gove draft in Gordon Brown to assist? He has been working on the fringes of bolstering the Union.

Who is next in line for obscurity in the Tory ranks? Alister Jack? Douglas Ross? The Baroness? It begs the question, had anyone ever heard of Lackey Luke Graham before?

John Edgar

Kilmaurs

ONE of my best memories was an over-confident Graham having to get the phone lines humming and personally knocking doors scraping for more votes in Ochil and South Perthshire in December 2019.

Joe Toole

via thenational.scot