THE Tory press repeats nauseously that Douglas Ross won a seat in the Scottish Parliament. Mr Ross did not win a seat, he was awarded a seat under the quirky d’Hont system that penalises the party who won 62 of the 73 (a massive majority by any standards) seats available in the direct vote for people who actually faced the electorate.

It was the SNP’s massive majority in the regional vote which allowed Ross to slip in through the back door.

Mike Underwood
Linlithgow

I WAS fascinated by the story of Douglas Ross’s meltdown during a Westminster committee meeting (Ross calls SNP MP inept in ‘pathetic’ personal attack, The National, May 14). I wonder what’s going on! Apart from the irony of accusing Pete Wishart of talking about independence too much when Ross’s whole election campaign consisted of nothing else, this may be a sign that the Scottish Tory leader is under pressure – and the possibilities are multiple.

He failed to impress during the campaign and the Tory establishment may have put him on notice that he’ll have to pull his socks up if he wants a place in the Lords or a shot at Alister Jack’s job – and by establishment I don’t mean Johnson, who can’t even remember Ross’s name.

Ross’s constituency is in the news for all the wrong reasons just as he wants to hit the ground running at Holyrood. He may be finding out the hard way that his glib assurances of being able to juggle three jobs (two political and one sporting) unless he also had to take over the FM spot, was just a little too optimistic.

Derek Ball

Bearsden

I think the MSP for Highlands and Islands should be made to apologise to the Scottish Parliament, the committee and especially Pete Wishart for his absolutely disgusting behaviour towards the chair yesterday.

This man clearly has no morals and is just a Westminster hand grenade to abuse and disrupt. Call him out!

Iain McEwan

Troon

ISN’T it about time Douglas Ross was sent to the naughty chair til he learns how to behave when with grown-ups? His constant shouting and hurling of repetitive SNP-bad phrases and personal insults reveal his inability to deal with the realities of being in adult company rather than a nursery sand pit.

Let’s hope that the newly appointed Presiding Officer has a command of language that can shut him up and if necessary remove him from the chamber till he learns how to behave.

Hogging the camera and headlines with his kind of behaviour is reminiscent of childish/childhood pranks to get attention and should reap the disciplinary action it deserves.

E Ahern

East Kilbride

MIKE Underwood (letters, The National, May 14) states the Unionists reckon they are subsidising Scotland to the tune of £6.3 billion per year, roughly £120 million per week. Could I suggest that we organise a “go fund me” to hire, and paint, a bus to drive around England proclaiming that, in the event of Scexit, NHS England could benefit to the tune of £120m per week.

Added to the £350m which that organisation is already receiving as a result of Brexit, England would almost certainly have the best health service in the world. Surely an incentive to push for English independence?

Cal Waterson

Lennoxtown

IT’s time to dispel the angst and misgivings about the future Scottish currency once and for all. It is beyond doubt that it will be called the Scots pound (or pound Scots). Psychologically for us Scots, this is no big leap. We have long been comfortable with our own distinctive bank notes and the Scots pound will, from the outset, be at par with the English pound.

That being the case, the transition will make little perceivable difference to our day to day monetary dealings. The key issue will be the timing of the establishment of our central bank, for which I strongly suggest we should start preparing now.

When the Baltic states gained their independence from the former Soviet Union in 1991, they were quick in replacing the rouble with their own currencies, a much more challenging task than Scotland is likely to face, but one that set them fair for rapid social and economic growth before eventually adopting the Euro a couple of decades later.

So let’s be clear, there is nothing to fear: the currency of our independent Scotland will be the Scots pound at par value with the English pound. Let us not beat about the bush. Give the Scots pound its name and be assertive about it.

Roy Pedersen

Lochlann, Inverness