Who’s bankrupt?

The First Minister claims the moral high ground once again as she criticises the leaked UK Government proposals on immigration (“Sturgeon attacks ‘disastrous’ leaked post-brexit plan to cut immigration”, 7 September). She describes the plans as “morally bankrupt”, hoping no one reflects on how different things might have been if her government had not so blatantly sought to wring as much grievance as possible out of the Brexit process, viewing it primarily, from the start, as a lever to justify another independence referendum. The Scottish Government’s determination to disrupt and undermine Brexit has knowingly rendered any hope of a more collaborative approach next to impossible.

Meanwhile, a report from the police watchdog, Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary Scotland, concluded that the Scottish Government’s planned merger of Police Scotland and the British Transport Police in Scotland was “entirely” a political decision, without a proper supporting business case.

The First Minister decided the scottish government must break up the British Transport Police, a service that has been working perfectly well north and south of the Border, not because it should, but rather because it could. Removing the Scottish arm of a service that carries a British identity in its title, of course suited the SNP’S core ideology, but the blatant lack of rational analysis of the pros and cons of such a move displays an arrogant disregard for proper process. Presumably, the First Minister sees nothing “morally bankrupt” in that. KEITH HOWELL

White Moss West Linton, Peeblesshire