Brexit groove

The inability of Nicola Sturgeon to get on with her day job and out of her Indy2/brexit groove reminds me of the old Chic Murray story of the woman with an extremely long nose who tripped and got it stuck in a tram line.

It was impossible to extricate her without injuring her nose, so the decision was taken to lift her up, wheelbarrow race-style, and push her all the way to the depot and the end of the line.

Of course, the First Minister’s dainty nose is one of her best features but will Ms Sturgeon be able to extricate herself as gracefully from the rails without getting further snarled up in Brexit, currency, deficit,

education, health and other “leaves on the line”?

ALLAN SUTHERLAND Willow Row Stonehaven I refer to James Duncan’s letter of 8 September. When trying to justify the case for Scotland to be independent the SNP always repeat the same old stuff about other small countries managing to do well so why shouldn’t Scotland?

I am 5ft 11in and have friends the same size and smaller who are much wealthier than me and others who don’t have much at all.

I had friends as a young man who were smaller than me or the same size as me who could run faster than me and thrash me at squash.

Size had nothing to do with it. For every small country that is doing well one can point to dozens that aren’t. Why does the SNP think size matters ?

The facts are that as things are at present the SNP’S own Gers figures, however anyone cares to spin them, show that Scotland’s 2016 spending exceeded income from taxation by £15 billion.

DONALD LEWIS

Gifford East Lothian I was intrigued when I heard Ms Sturgeon using the phrase “meaningless tautological soundbite” in reference to the Prime Minister.

I had never heard of the word “tautological” so decided to look it up and, when I discovered that it means “needless repetition of an idea”, I instantly understood why this word would be a favourite in the First Minister’s lexicon. JIM HOUSTON

Winton Gardens Edinburgh