ON December 18, 489 people died of Covid-19. They died alone because of restrictions to stop the virus from spreading. Not only did the Tories think the rules didn’t apply to them by having a Downing Street Christmas party but they then laughed at the people who followed the rules.

This isn’t an aberration. This is the face of greedy, selfish, uncaring ideology all personified by Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson.

More than 167,000 deaths have occurred amid the Tories’ herd immunity agenda, while the financial oligarchy has glutted itself on profits, corruption, austerity and death. Society is divided as never before.

READ MORE: FMQs: Nicola Sturgeon calls Boris Johnson 'corrupt' and calls for him to resign

The synthetic “anger” expressed by “Baroness” Ruth Davidson and the “Scottish” Tory branch headboy and snivelling toad Douglas Ross against Tory dictator Boris Johnson is entirely dissembling.

These Tories both stood in multiple elections and told the people of Scotland to vote for this incompetent, lying, lazy, fraudulent, philandering clown. Davidson even took a peerage from Johnson in exchange for pledging fealty to the rotten corrupt Johnson regime. All so she and other greedy Tories could gorge on the trough.

Now that Johnson has been exposed for the hollow, fraudulent, self-serving fibber that he is, Davidson is trying to wash her hands of culpability. Too late. These Tory Unionists bear ultimate responsibility for Johnson, his fascism and his lies.

READ MORE: Ruth Davidson tells Lords that Unionists are making the case for independence

Greedy MPs are seen by the looters of society, the bankers, the swindling property developers, tax-avoiding billionaires, media moguls and other Tory donors as apple-polishers whose loyalties can be secured for peanuts.

Now a veritable panoply of conspiracy theorists, anti-science cranks and libertarian con men are telling the most backward, politically discombobulated sections of society that anti-Covid measures are a threat. They ridiculously claim that these are tyrannical, comparable with 1930s Germany. The aim of this far-right propaganda is to incite violence against the left.

The Tories’ aim for the independence movement is to kill momentum, splinter unity and exhaust spirits. Staying within the Union with the Tories means capital-driven fascistic ecocidal madness.

Alan Hinnrichs
Dundee

IT is striking to note the EU has awarded Ireland almost £850 million as compensation for Brexit, while Scotland has been given just £172m from the Shared Prosperity Fund (SPF) by Westminster, which aims to replace previous EU funding from Brussels.

These “levelling up” awards from the SPF go directly to local authorities rather than to the Scottish Government, which EU funds had previously done. It has also been evidenced that two-thirds of authorities have received no funding at all.

READ MORE: Levelling Up Fund could offer Scots communities 'significantly less' than EU

Prior to Brexit, Boris Johnson and Michael Gove as part of the Vote Leave campaign promised that the Scottish Government would receive £1.5 billion to spend on Scottish priorities when the UK left the EU.

While we in Scotland are being short-changed, contrast this with the £850m Ireland has received under the Brexit Adjustment Reserve. This aims to compensate those nations impacted by Brexit, making a significant difference to the Irish economy through economic support, job creation and training.

The economic impact of Brexit on Scotland has been disastrous and it is clear the UK Government is not acting in our best interest. Until we take full control over our own affairs as an independent state, this is yet another example of the treatment we can continue to expect from Westminster.

Alex Orr
Edinburgh