Ship ahoy, mates

When the Prime Minister decided to circumvent the fixed-term Parliaments Act and call a snap general election, purportedly to improve her hand during the Brexit negotiations, she clearly hoped to exploit doubts over Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership capabilities for the political advantage of increasing her party’s majority in the House of Commons. Her arrogance is clearly evidenced in the Conservative manifesto that is not backed by any costings, yet much of the mainstream media, including the BBC, have been distracted by questions over the economic details of proposed taxes and spending of the other political parties, often without reference to the huge economic and social implications of Brexit.

In Scotland there have been further distractions with debate over devolved matters such as health and education, which has often inappropriately been focused on selected statistics associated with the performance of the Scottish Government at Holyrood instead of the broader spending decisions made by the UK Government at Westminster.

In spite of these distractions the illusion of a “strong and stable” leader had already begun to fade as May’s disparaged challenger appeared more credible. There is now no time to objectively assess whether Theresa May’s performance as Home Secretary was as dismal on policing and national security as it was on immigration, although reducing police numbers in England appears to have been illadvised.

Hopefully, however, it is not too late for the electorate to realise that a Brexit ship captained by Theresa May is headed for disaster and that the Scottish economy will sink along with the UK economy unless the people of Scotland choose to board a different ship that they can help to navigate in a new direction. STAN GRODYNSKI

Gosford Road Longniddry, East Lothian Upon listening to speeches by Labour’s Kezia Dugdale and the Conservatives’ Ruth Davidson all I can make out is their obsessive attack on proposals for a second independence referendum in Scotland and few scant details on any programme they may allegedly have. Between these two there is little mention of Brexit or how these two would plan to shield Scotland from the harsh economic reality of a hard Brexit.

Only Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP are willing to argue point by point with Theresa May and insist Scotland is represented in the Brexit negotiations and that staying in a single-market will soften the blow for our country.

OLGA FERGUSON Mayfield Road, Edinburgh This general election has been like no other in as much as we have had a party leader shy of the press and cameras and another party leader thriving despite having to look over his shoulders at the threat within. Here in Scotland, like never before, we have a party defending 95 per cent of seats, no mean feat.

So what does today hold for voters? Perhaps a look at just two aspects of this election may hold the key, as the polling stations await.

First, the campaign, lacklustre as it was, witnessed the opposition that is the Labour Party try to pull itself together while their own candidates refused to have Jeremy Corbyn on any of their literature, a message portraying disunity and a lack of loyalty for its own democratic processes.

Secondly was the very unusual occurrence of a u-turn on a manifesto commitment, only 48 hours after its launch, that is, the Conservatives on Social Care. Just in those two incidents, voters need to be asking, what are the main two UK parties bringing to Scotland, other than internal disunity and the shambles that is social care. CATRIONA C CLARK

Hawthorn Drive Banknock, Falkirk It is now clear why Theresa May is trying to talk about Brexit and nothing else, and the Conservatives are concentrating on Jeremy Corbyn. Events have conspired to show austerity for what it is: an attempt to cut back the state no matter the cost to the public, whilst protecting the richest and creating space for them to receive tax cuts.

It is rather hard to reconthe cile Tory claims that Labour is not strong on terrorism with the fact that Labour is calling for 10,000 more police to be recruited, while Mrs May cut numbers by 21,500, under pressure from George Osborne at the Treasury. Police Community Support Officers are our eyes and ears in the community, but thousands were let go in the name of austerity.

Mrs May is making much play of increasing the budget for armed police since 2015, but is ignoring the inconvenient fact that their numbers actually fell by 1,100 under the Tories, between 2010 and 2015, when May herself was responsible for the police as Home Secretary. It was only after the terrible attack in Paris in April 2016 that David Cameron realised he had made an almighty mistake, that he partially reversed the cut and authorised more spending.

Even Mrs Thatcher in her day made sure she didn’t bow to Treasury demands to cut police numbers. Mrs May, as both Home Secretary and PM, has shown herself to be weak and wobbly – the very opposite of strong and stable.

When the Conservatives have lost contact with reality, and see their priority as being to cut the support given by the richest in society to the rest of us, no matter the cost; and while Mrs May is too afraid to debate face-to-face because inconvenient facts might emerge, it’s not surprising that the polls have narrowed.

LUCY GRIG Roseneath Street, Edinburgh Nicola Sturgeon confirms if she loses indyref2, the SNP would seek indyref3, then presumably 4 and 5 ad infinitum. It is, of course, a single-issue party so no surprises here.

With opinion polls suggesting a possible outcome of today’s election being a Labour minority government dependent on the SNP to pass legislation, it’s inevitable Ms Sturgeon would ruthlessly exploit such a situation to try to achieve indyref2 on her terms and timescale.

If Jeremy Corbyn needs SNP to unlock the door to Downing Street for him, I doubt Kezia Dugdale’s insistence that Labour won’t do a deal with the SNP will count for much. But – and it’s a huge but – if Jeremy Corbyn is as tough as Theresa May with Nicola Sturgeon and insists there will be no referendum until Brexit is bedded down – essentially after the next Holyrood election – then unionists in Scotland could be in a strong position.

Mr Corbyn is, after all, what Ms Sturgeon pretends to be: a genuine socialist. The SNP is a party bound by a common desire to break up the UK, not solid, left wing principles.

Ms Sturgeon seemingly can’t stop telling us that it’s imperative Scotland leaves the UK to escape Tory austerity – she insists Scots are politically different in approach to an RUK that votes a tory government into office.

Yet with Mr Corbyn in power and the SNP pulling the strings in Downing Street, surely the UK will be exactly the kind of place Ms Sturgeon maintains Scotland could be, if only it were independent? How would the SNP leader spin her way out of that one?

MARTIN REDFERN Merchiston Gardens, Edinburgh This general election will be remembered for one thing in Scotland more than any other. It will be remembered as the time when great swathes of the electorate stopped selecting parties and candidates for their policies on all the major matters that control the electorate’s lives. Instead they will be voting on pro and anti-uk lines. Vast numbers will be voting to try and stop others, not for any positive reason. I did so myself. It is a sad state of affairs and reduces this country to a kind of Northern Ireland statelet. There, religion is a major factor when it comes to elections. here there is no religious element but the divide is equally wide and ever widening. untrammelled Nationalism has caused this catastrophic divide.

ALEXANDER MCKAY New Cut Rigg, Edinburgh