Boris ‘welcome’

Prime Minister Boris Johnson will be “welcomed” on the Tories’ Holyrood election campaign, Scottish party leader Douglas Ross has said. The Moray MP described his relationship with Mr Johnson as one of "mutual respect."

Some folk can see past the hair and the memes saying how evil he is. The reality has turned out that he’s too left-wing for his own party and is delivering results. He’s had to walk the middle line or one side of the Covid mob would be out rioting and still delivered jabs. Maybe his bumbling optimism might be more palatable than the moan-alots. I’m staying open minded and judging him on policies rather than media agendas.

Dianne Davidson The Tory vote in Scotland is fairly fixed. Tories would never vote for any other party. There is a section of the electorate who have recently voted Tory to register their opposition to independence. Those voters could return to voting Labour if a strong enough rejection of independence is made by Labour. A new leader in Scotland and Starmer are also positives.

Jim Quinn Happy to hear it. Unionists must stick together and bow down to their Westminster masters. After all, they are a party registered and based in England.

Juli Harris Please don’t. It won’t help. Douglas, if you think it will sway the undecided I believe that will be a serious error judgement.

Murray Hutchison He came, he saw, he ran out the back...

Deborah Mackichan The PM’S popularity is increasing in Scotland. After all, he delivered Brexit for the one million-plus Scots who voted to leave the EU – more than voted for the SNP in the 2017 election.

Fiona Ogilvie Taylor If I am not allowed to visit family in Wigan or Montrose then Boris should not be coming to Scotland. It seems like there is one rule for the ordinary folk and another for toffs like Boris

Barbara Milne Why is it that Nationalists use the word “toff ”? is this some kind of chip on the shoulder or just an inferiority complex?

James Kelly Boris Johnson is PM of the UK. It’s his job to visit the whole of the UK, just like the Scottish MPS who go to

London to sit in their posh leather seats. They could be working from home but they choose to travel to London instead as that's their job.

Alex Pajewski

Festival blues

Scotland is facing a twoand-a-half year hiatus without major festivals and events, according to Paul Bush, chief executive of government agency Eventscotland. He warned they would be "unsustainable" to stage while Covid social distancing measures are still needed.

So predictably the rest of the country is taking a sensible approach to the issue of Covid but Edinburgh still hasn’t got the idea yet. They are irresponsibly suggesting their festivals will go ahead when they know in reality the chances are that they will have to cancel sooner or later. Give the city a rest again this year. Who wants hordes of tourists from all over the globe arriving here and bringing who know what virus variant with them? Edinburgh Council wants to get tourists here at any cost, regardless of the cost. That’s the problem with having encouraged overtourism for years, now they need it. Poor show.

Jon Clark No-one should be saying it is going to be as long as this. I would say very soon they will have a better idea after the vaccines are rolled out. How depressing.

Gemma Riddles Celtic Connections just had a great “festival pass” where we could watch all of this year’s gigs online. It worked really well. Obviously being there is what we all want but this was a lovely way to “go out by staying in”.

Bee Mcgowan

We will be fine. Stay home just now to ensure audience members in the future!

Sue Forsyth

If we go for a zero-covid approach we could have festivals back as well as everything else.

Mark English Two-and-a-half years from when? The start of the virus in Scotland? That means next summer, which seems reasonable.

Kim Grant They should be supporting the events industry. A lot of people have lost their jobs and businesses through this in that sector and not one bit of support.

Kirsty Greig Who needs jobs or tourists? Our kids can pay off the debt.

Paul Taylor