Red card for Ross

Telling his Tor y MPS to stop voting on English-only legislation (Scotsman, 27 October) does not get Douglas Ross out of the free school meals’ black hole as this has financial implications for Scotland under Barnet consequentials. It was the Tories that imposed EVEL on Scottish MPS yet under the UK Internal Market Bill English Tor y MPS can effectively overrule decisions of our Scottish Parliament on devolved matters.

Douglas Ross can’t escape from decisions taken by the UK Government. For example, on 24 June he voted against routine weekly Covid testing of NHS and care home staff.

He was also par t of the UK Government when Boris Johnson ignored public health warnings and dithered for nine days before bringing in the lockdown and during this critical time the number of infections had rocketed from an estimated 200,000 to 1.5 million. This is the main reason the UK has one of the worst Covid records in Europe and suffering the worst economic fallout.

At Holyrood, Douglas Ross’s Tories, having opposed the extension of the Furlough Scheme, have now got themselves into the position of opposing calls for businesses in Scotland to get the same funding guarantees as businesses south of the border.

MARY THOMAS Watson Crescent, Edinburgh