I COULDN’T help but note the irony in your article “SNP hit out at plan to cut Scottish constituencies” (Oct 14).

Professor Ailsa Henderson, a commissioner on the review, is quoted as saying: “If everyone is selecting representatives to the same legislature but their votes are worth more purely on where they live, then, that obviously is a problem.”

By George, she’s got it! If that, in a nutshell, does not describe the democratic deficit in Scotland’s continued presence in the Unionist Parliament in London, I don’t know what does.

Outnumbered almost 5:1 in a ratio that this boundary change would make even more detrimental, never in its history have English constituency MPs voted for a measure that put Scotland’s needs before that of our southern neighbour, with Brexit being just the latest example.

READ MORE: Electoral boundary changes leave Scots with lowest representation in a century

A diminishing voice in the London parliament hardly betokens the “Union of equals”, “punching above our weight” mantra of the those Scots Unionists who continue to exert too much influence over Scotland’s governance.

Kevin Cordell
Dundee

BOUNDARY changes, an attempt to silence democracy and yet another power grab! However, you have the other argument, is there a need for the current number of MPs when we have a Parliament at Holyrood?

Yes there is, because so much that affects Scotland is still reserved to Westminster, ie immigration, 86% of all welfare spend in Scotland, employment law, energy policy, pensions, defence, just to mention a few. Scotland’s voice at Westminster is needed more than ever with the onslaught of Brexit becoming a reality. Scotland must be heard – to diminish that voice is diminishing democracy from the people of Scotland.

Catriona C Clark
Falkirk

BORIS relies on the strategy that we will forget his previous promises that haven’t been delivered, but have been replaced with further feel good promises in the form of catchy soundbites that especially would appeal to Labour voters. And to be fair, it works. Why else would he still be in power?

Back in 2016, the former London mayor pledged that if Brexit caused damage to the economy he would apologise! In 2021 we still await! He later promised it would lead to national revival! The opposite is reality. Forget Spain, it’s a holiday in space he needs ... one way!

Robin MacLean
Fort Augustus

LAID bare, the Tory Government rules for negotiating are: take the line of least resistance to conclude a deal then ignore the conditions afterwards because “the UK is a sovereign state and we can do whatever we want”.

Why is the unelected Lord Frost pretending to represent the UK when in reality he is only representing the right-wing Europe-haters of the Tory party?

Has everyone forgotten the promises made by Boris Johnson to deploy his secret IT programme to solve any border issues with Northern Ireland, or is the Tory inbuilt selective amnesia at work again?

Mike Underwood Linlithgow DOMINIC Cummings continues to be Boris Johnson’s bete noir and implacable enemy.

Since his sacking, Cummings has made it his business to embarrass Johnson at every opportunity with his vituperative comments to the press and media. Hell hath no fury like a special advisor scorned.

Dominic Cummings has scant regard for Johnson’s ability to be an effective politician and prime minister. His derogatory nickname for Johnson is “the trolley.”

READ MORE: UK Government never planned to stick to Brexit deal, Dominic Cummings claims

During the 2019 election campaign, Johnson said with his customary gloating satisfaction and baseless optimism that the “divorce” settlement he had negotiated with Brussels – including the special amendment to the negotiated settlement for Northern Ireland – was a “great” deal that was” oven ready” to be signed.

Cummings tweeted: “What I’ve said does not mean the Prime Minister was lying in the 2019 General Election, he never had a scooby doo what the Brexit deal he signed meant. He [Johnson] never understood what leaving the Customs Union meant until November 2020.”

Ouch! Johnson must be going off his trolley wondering what new revelations and excoriating barbs Cummings is going to come out with next.

Sandy Gordon Edinburgh IN response to the letter from Iain Wilson, I would reply the money is well spent. Mr Wilson it seems has never visited Knoydart, I have and it is wonderful. This pub is important to this small isolated community not just because it sells beer, it attracts tourists and with them comes money.

Mr Wilson should essay that boat trip from Mallaig, it is in itself a delight. Knoydart is welcome to my tax money.

Aefauldly Robert Mill
Irving

ARIANE Burgess skirts round the elephant with her column on how we protect the most vulnerable Scots from Tory avarice. The cost of extracting gas has not risen. The natural resources of any country should belong equitably to all the people of that country.

READ MORE: Ariane Burgess: The most vulnerable Scots need shelter from the UK Government

What has happened is big energy companies have been given our resources and have exploited a demand for these resources to inflate the prices unjustly. What we need is protection from the ravages of capitalism. Keir Starmer has shown the Labour Party has no stomach for the most basic tenets of socialism, will a future Scottish government be made of stronger stuff?

Ian Richmond
via email