Readers' letters: Douglas Ross' flip-flopping has made me quit the Scittsh Conservatives

However I was left with no option this week but to resign my membership of the Scottish Conservatives following a further “flip flop” from Douglas Ross, who withdrew his support for Boris Johnson again.

It is very clear to see that Douglas Ross could not lead a church service, never mind a supposedly mainstream political party. A time when Scotland’s political opposition should be holding Ms Sturgeon’s feet to the fire, they are instead navel gazing, looking inwards instead of outwards and working out what position they might adopt this week.

It will be very difficult for Ms Sturgeon at FMQs today to keep a straight face when Douglas Ross gets to his feet!

And before the Labour Party get too far ahead of themselves, mainstream political journalists would do well to remind the likes of Keir Starmer, Emily Thornberry, Lisa Nandy, David Lammy et al that they campaigned tirelessly at the last general election to have Putin’s representative in the UK – aka Jeremy Corbyn – to be the next British Prime Minster. Don’t let them forget that and be careful what you wish for.

Richard Allison, Edinburgh

Back HS2, Nicola

As we all know, Boris Johnson is in favour of HS2, which costs a fortune and is as much use as a chocolate teapot.

However, I have had a wizard wheeze and I hope that Nicola Sturgeon is reading this, as Nicola and her band of not-terribly-useful ministers are always on the look-out for anything that the UK Government does so that they can either: a) do the opposite, or b) take the money and then say that they didn't get enough..

As many of us have pointed out, the SNP has a well-established record of failure in anything much that it touches. So, it struck me that, if the SNP could be persuaded to support HS2, it would be guaranteed to cost the entire National Debt and be 40 years late, or both. Either would be certain to make even Conservative MPs blanch at the thought of what a monumental waste of money it is (and it is). The cachet of SNP approval would be certain to knock it on the head.

So, come on, Nicola! The nation (the British nation, that is) needs you!

Andrew HN Gray, Edinburgh

Wind farms blow

Mary Thomas states in her letter of 6 June that with my letter of 31 May, I have misunderstood the offshore wind auction. Having made this statement, I thought we might be told why?

The Queen does not own the coastal waters around Scotland. These are not her private property. These are held by the Crown Estate, a statutory corporation established in perpetuity as a trust estate, being independent of government and the monarch.

Responsibility for Crown Estate here was given in 2017 to the Scottish Government, which set up Crown Estates Scotland. They were instructed by SNP government that the auction should have a maximum bid where the rest of the UK (rUK) didn’t. Recent auction results were £8.79bn for 8GW capacity in rUK, where Scotland managed £700m (the max allowed bid) for 25GW.

Ms Thomas suggests that ten-year leases were purchased and also it will be more than ten years for the turbines to be operational. Most people will see the obvious flaw here, unless they are in the SNP government. Successful bidders were in fact offered option agreements which reserve the right to specific areas of seabed.

Ms Thomas wants to print magic money and borrow, putting future generations into further debt for the mistakes and incompetence of the current SNP government.

Alastair Murray, Edinburgh

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