Hollow words from Mr Brown

Sir, - In 1979, Margaret Thatcher guaranteed Scots that the rejection of a Scottish assembly would not mean no change.

She assured voters that voting no would not kill off the constitutional question and she would come up with “something better”. That no vote cost Scotland 250,000 manufacturing jobs, £40 billion in North Sea oil revenues and early exposure to the Poll Tax.

Gordon Brown is now channelling the spirit of Mrs Thatcher when he talks about a “more federal relationship” for the UK to kill off a second

referendum. Mr Brown is like an old abused circus bear wheeled out to do the same old trick because the unionists have run out of ideas.

Mr Brown promised “federalism” would be enacted after the no vote in the referendum. What we got was David Cameron’s version of the movie the Hunger Games but without the games.

Gordon Brown should not be trusted. It was his adoption of PFI which sees Scottish taxpayers giving £1 billion to corporations who avoid tax.

His raid on private pensions in 1997 cost us £100 billion. Of course, his last act of economic incompetence was to loot the UK Treasury in order to bail out the banks he failed to regulate in the first place.

Gordon Brown is a man who holds the Scottish public in contempt. He only ever gives speeches to hand-picked audiences of loyal Labour hacks where he will not be challenged.

He had 10 years as Chancellor and three as Prime Minster to come up with a new constitutional settlement. Alan Hinnrichs. 2 Gillespie Terrace, Dundee.