A puzzlement

I know that we are heading for the “silly season”, when political news is a bit thin on the ground. However, I couldn’t help but spot the glaring inconsistency in two Downing Street policy announcements featured in the headlines printed in The Scots- man last week – on consecutive days. On Thursday 20 July, you ran a story with the headline: “Downing Street pledges to respect devolution” – a selfexplanatory header. The following day, you printed a story with the headline: “No rift with Nicola Sturgeon”, quoting government sources that Theresa May will no longer meet Nicola Sturgeon in oneto-one meetings.

I thought that the UK Government’s foreign relations with the European Union over Brexit were confused, but trying to understand the way they are dealing with the internal relations of the UK...

This is a conundrum on a par with The Three Cups Problem.

DAVID PATRICK Thirlestane Road, Edinburgh