Shame on those who have bestowed power on this group

IT is perhaps appropriate that the dire election result in England should have been confirmed on Friday the 13th, certainly a day of ill omen for sensible people, but there is another date which also resonates with these events. Eighty years ago the UK went to war to defeat rightwing tyranny in Europe; today it seems that too many of our fellow citizens are happy to elect a party of the extreme right into power.

It is a party whose election slogan showed a determination to alienate us from our closest European allies, to throw the country unprotected into the maw of Donald Trump’s empire and if possible, to damage the EU itself, which has been a major player in maintaining peace in Europe since 1945. A party which shows every sign of wishing to establish an elective dictatorship. Any hostile press comment such as Channel 4’s wonderful melting ice sculpture or the BBC’S half-hearted attempt to expose Boris Johnson to close scrutiny, is threatened with punishment. Nationals of other countries are demonised and those in Scotland who would wish the opportunity to express their views in a referendum find this used as a weapon against them. All this to further the interests of the Tory’s tax-avoiding billionaire backers and to appease the racists and deluded voters who believed the lies peddled by the Leave campaign.

Those voting for this extreme cabal should feel shame at giving Mr Johnson and his ilk the opportunity to destroy our freedoms and privileges, those for which our parents and grandparents fought and in too many cases died, to maintain and enhance. Should they

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not perhaps have heeded the words of Winston Churchill, often portrayed as their hero, who made very clear that a united Europe was our best protection against tyranny and war?

We can only hope that December 12 represents a high point for the ugly tide of right-wing extremism in the UK. Sadly, it is likely that a lot of suffering, economic and social, will be incurred before this, like 1930s Fascism, is defeated.

Dr RM Morris,

Ellon.

ONE positive comes from the continuation of the Conservatives in power. They can’t turn round to the electorate after a few days and say that they’ve discovered that the previous government has left the economy in such a mess that they won’t be able to carry out all the promises that they’ve made. Interesting times ahead.

Alan Mcgibbon, Paisley.

WELL, the latest election results disprove one theory. President Abraham Lincoln was wrong. You really can fool all of the people all of the time.

Not only has Boris Johnson done it, but the SNP wins reveal that the Scottish voting public have no real interest in the fact that the party is responsible for our higher rate of income tax; our messed-up education provision and our appalling waiting lists in the NHS. Who cares?

I do not believe that the Scottish public ever vote objectively for the good of the UK and its economic stability. They vote for their own backyard. With free prescriptions

and bus passes, the SNP has very cleverly fed the gullible public bread and circuses and it has worked. Instead of strengthening the Union within Great Britain the Scottish voters seemingly have not the selfdiscipline to see beyond their own transient self-indulgence.

For example, the opportunity to stop the UK continuing as a two-party state has been lost yet again. We will possibly have a one-party nationalist Scotland if the SNP’S blind popularity continues into the Holyrood elections in 2021. If it then wins its case for independence it could be goodbye Boris, hello Brussels. Aristotle wrote about “the wisdom of the crowd”. He should have rather warned us against the madness of the irrational crowd.

I hope the people who voted out the Libdems in East Dunbartonshire in favour of the nationalists start thinking soon with their heads about the big picture of this island entity instead of with their parochial tartan interests.

Bill Brown, Milngavie.

BORIS Johnson boasts that we live in the greatest democracy in the world. Yet one in every three adults in the electorate chose not to vote. The combined percentage vote of Labour and Liberal Democrats equals the percentage vote of the Conservatives – indeed exceeds it by 0.12 per cent. The popular vote for the Tories increased by one per cent, yet their election victory is hailed as a landslide. First past the post is blatantly unfit for purpose.

Weirdly the Conservative manifesto, insubstantial as it was, framed itself as if this “new” government had nothing to do with the governments of the last nine years which have let the economy stagnate, and public services suffer. And this Conservative and Uinionist Party will see immense pressure for Scotland and also Northern Ireland to leave the Union.

We have also witnessed an election in which the prospective Prime Minister avoided due scrutiny, many lies were told, and confidence in both “mainstream media” and social media political comment was sadly undermined.

Mature democracy? I don’t think so.

Joan Hoggan, Blanefield.

AS a proud Scot who wishes to remain in the UK, could I ask that someone in the news world points out to the SNP and Nicola Sturgeon that the SNP has not won a landslide? The SNP took 45 per cent of the vote in Scotland, which gave it 81 per cent of the seats. This is not a mandate for independence but a mandate for proportional representation.

Louise Shields, Bearsden.

NICOLA Sturgeon may think she has the licence to say that the successes gained by the SNP prove there is a mandate for a second independence referendum. To quote another firebrand, “No, no, no.” For many Scots, the SNP was the party disliked least; damned by faint praise indeed.

The majority vote in Scotland supported Unionist parties, and there is still a majority who wish to be Scottish and British.

First Minister, please know that your job is to represent all Scots, and please turn your undoubted talents on making Scotland better for each and every one of us.

Sheila Fell, Newton Mearns.