Why was there such a strong Tory vote?

Sir,

Almost 16,000 electors in Argyll and Bute voted for the Conservative and Unionist candidate. Why? The normal answer would be that they wanted Theresa May to continue as Prime Minister and were happy with her policies; if so, they were out of step with the rest of the UK.

Not that the Scottish branch office of the party made much play of Mrs May’s policies: it kept quiet about them.

That lovely, bubbly, cuddly Ruth Davidson only had one policy: say no to a second referendum, and shared this with the other two Unionist parties. I’m discounting UKIP as a party of course. It backfired on every possible count. Had the election been a referendum, which is how they treated it, then independence won hands down; even after losing seats, the SNP won more that all the Unionists parties together.

Further, in casting their votes in these terms, a section of the Scottish electorate returned 13 Conservative MPs, enabling Mrs May to stay in power with the support of the rational and thoughtful DUP.

Why are Unionists so petrified of a second referendum? Could it be that they are afraid of losing it?

They hate the thought of Scottish independence so much they’ll keep in office the most inept PM and cabinet in history? They want May, Johnson, Davis, Hunt, Fallon and Gove to continue to govern us?

It is not a union of equal nations, as is claimed – it is not a union at all in any normal sense.

The English conquered Wales and Ireland and bought Scotland from ‘a parcel of rogues’. It is the festering remnants of the English empire.

I’m sometimes accused of hating the English but would point out that, apart from the first two years of primary in Dunstaffnage, my whole education was in England, my whole working life was in England, one of my grandparents is English, my wife is English, my children and grandchildren are English; so, no.

I don’t hate the English, I simply don’t want to be governed by them. Tony Williams, Muasdale.