WE in Scotland have known for a long time that England is chasing a dream of the power and influence once bestowed by an Empire run – as a former administrator of it once said – “by robbery, pillage and murder”. But the depth of ignorance at Westminster of the realities of the modern world is almost beyond belief.

The modern threat is no longer of a large country invading to take over our resources, as “Britain” used to do around the world. It is now much more about covert attacks to undermine or even destroy economies, or secret plots by fanatical groups to do as much damage and create as much fear as possible.

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Such enemies are becoming cleverer and more devious all the time. So far from being a “deterrent” or any form of protection, the possession of weapons of mass destruction creates a target. Did these vile weapons deter the London Bridge attack, or the Manchester Arena bombing, or the Paris and Nice ones? Could they have been used against Islamic State? Yet here we have the UK Government deluded enough to be increasing our risk.

In purely practical terms, even if we had none, any country considering using their nuclear weapons against us would have the sense to factor in the risk to themselves, from the “collateral damage” of fallout and its effect on its own people. Think Chernobyl and other accidents far smaller than a nuclear blast.

If Scotland is even to survive, let alone have a decent future, it is past time that we left this lunatic asylum run by inmates.

L McGregor
Falkirk

THAT David Davis should have added his tuppence worth to the Scottish Government’s handling of allegations against Alex Salmond should not really have come as any surprise. Mr Davis is a friend of the former First Minister’s and has grasped this opportunity to use a professed defence of him to try and rekindle the notion of conspiracy theories to discredit the present First Minister, her party and cause harm to the independence movement.

The MP for Haltemprice and Howden’s use of parliamentary privilege in support of alleged evidence by whistleblowers is transparently designed to reignite the flames of division within SNP ranks and keep the massed ranks of the UK media at the throat of the Scottish Government prior to the May election.

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Mr Davis, lest we forget, is no stranger to misleading parliament himself. As Brexit Secretary it was claimed that he “edited” reports on the potential effects of Brexit on 58 sectors of the UK economy before they were sent to the select committee on exiting the EU. This was despite the fact that MPs had voted for the information to be provided in full from the man who previously stated that there would be no downside to Brexit.

Dominic Cummings, no stranger to controversy himself, described Mr Davis as “thick as mince, lazy as a toad and vain as Narcissus.” A fellow Tory MP described him as “the only man who can swagger while sitting down.”

David Davis’s reputation has been tarnished for some time and he is regarded by many of his peers as a political dinosaur from the same attention-seeking and antediluvian stable as Peter Bone and Christopher Chope. Those who profess to support Scottish independence should ignore his lamentable attempts to appear relevant and prepare for the real battles ahead.

Owen Kelly
Stirling

I CONCEDE that Steve Arnott (Letters, March 12) has probably given more thought to this than myself as he is a member of Action for Independence. However, looking at the choices I have within the Highlands & Islands region, I can’t see that the standing of more pro-indy parties will help maximise independence seats.

The ISP website has a very helpful breakdown of votes cast and seats won in 2016 by region, which I assume is accurate. For the Highlands & Islands, the constituency seats were shared six (SNP) and two (LibDem). Of the seven list “seats”, the split was three (Con), two (Lab), one (SNP) and one (Green).

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The SNP polled more than 42% (81600) of the list votes. The Greens polled 7.7%. The number of list votes for a party is divided by the number of constituency seats that party won, plus one. Accordingly, the SNP list votes were reduced to 11657 for the first round (81600/6+1 = 11657). It wasn’t until the sixth round that that amount was sufficient to win the SNP a “seat” on the list.

It’s worth noting that the SNP won their single “seat” on the list by only 210 votes from Labour, and less than 500 from the Conservatives. Therefore, any leakage from SNP to the Greens, or any other pro-indy party, of a few hundred votes could easily reduce the total success of the SNP, which is something, I believe, that would hinder the path to an independent Scotland.

For me the choice looks straightforward: both votes SNP. I acknowledge that in other regions of the country different conclusions could arise, but the danger is that the ISP and/or AFI will just split votes with the Greens.

Roddie Macpherson
Avoch

I WOULD like to thank The National and its staff for getting under the skin of the “proud Scot, but” individuals who walk amongst us – but who recent polls suggest are decreasing in number by the day.

They used to regularly hide our daily independence-supporting paper under piles of Daily Mails and other such Tory propaganda, but Wednesday’s events at the supermarket took on a more sinister line. What causes someone to vandalise newspapers just because that newspaper disagrees with their viewpoints? What next, the burning of books? Free speech, freedom of choice and democracy are all part of the fabric of a fair society, but maybe not so much in the eyes of the “proud Scot, but” brigade. I still bought one of the vandalised newspapers, so to “Angry Boris of Westhill”, you certainly failed in your mission.

Angus Macdonald
Skene, Westhill