HIS parties and his lies about parties, contracts and wallpaper are surely all we should have expected.

The real horror of Boris Johnson and his gang, in my opinion, is found in their lies about herd immunity and the real causes of unacknowledged, perhaps uncounted, lonely Covid deaths – especially of the old – in care homes throughout the UK.

But the biggest, most treacherous lies of all came from those who drove us out of the EU, the ERG crew who currently run Westminster, hiding behind their plausible old Etonian clown, the con-man they placed, precisely for that purpose, as Prime Minister of this benighted Westminster administration.

Watch them now as they lose their front man. It will be interesting to see how they move to save their own skins – and the plans they have for England.

I hope, from the bottom of my heart, that Scotland moves soon to leave the horrible, terminal, mess at Westminster. Our exit will surely also force a deep-clean of democracy in England, for the good of everyone in the UK.

Frances McKie, Evanton.

BLACKMAIL CLAIM THE FINAL STRAW

WILLIAM Wragg's seismic revelations about the employment by Tory whips of black arts, dirty tricks and shoddy tactics to intimidate their backbenchers into shoring up the shaky position of Boris Johnson must send shockwaves reverberating through the country about how this Government operates.

To put pressure upon colleagues by threatening the withholding of funds already promised to MPs' constituencies or planting stories in the media to discredit MPs refusing to comply with the demand to support the PM reeks of the whiff of sulphur, underlining the Faustian pact some people in power appear to have made to ensure their continuation in office.

The scales must be tipping heavily in favour of the ignominious departure of Mr Johnson thanks to the principled public utterance by a man as respected as Mr Wragg, who voiced his grave concerns in a public place to his colleagues.

Denis Bruce, Bishopbriggs.

A DIVERSION FOR THE SNP

NO wonder the SNP is keen to oust Boris Johnson despite this being at best a rather short-term gain for long-term pain. It keeps its failures off the front pages.

A new year and the catastrophes mount up for the SNP/Green alliance. An out of touch and too cautious Covid policy, pupils frightened to go back to the classrooms, the Ferguson shipyard in even more disarray, A&E waiting times at an all-time low, retail businesses losing huge sums of money, underfunded local councils being forced to cut services, all while it raises taxes and does not even have the common sense to put off expensive new fire alarm regulations for hard-pressed homeowners. Constantly blaming Westminster is a convenient distraction for now, but these failures and others will not be forgotten come the May council elections.

Defending a record like this on the doorstep will be rather difficult, especially since breaking up the UK does not provide convincing answers.

Dr Gerald Edwards, Glasgow.

SEND FOR MORDAUNT

IF, or should that be when, Boris Johnson eventually steps down, I hope that the Tories select Penny Mordaunt as their new leader. Not that I particularly know or even care what her policies are, although of course I would want to see the UK governed well, and she could only improve on what we have.

But as a fervent anti-nationalist, I have watched Ms Mordaunt effortlessly destroy Ian Blackford and the other SNP MPs so often on the floor of the House, using only facts and figures and a stunning grasp of what is going on in Scotland, that nothing would give me greater pleasure than to see her as Prime Minister.

Alexander McKay, Edinburgh.

DELUDED CLAIM ABOUT FORMER PMs

I PRESUME the Covid restriction on restaurants in Dundee has now been fully lifted, in order for Les Mackay to have sufficient chips on his shoulders as evidenced by his letter (January 20).

His rant about our leaders' schools is total nonsense, as he could have noted himself had he but bothered to check the simple facts. Over the last 50 years we have had 10 Prime Ministers, only three of whom (Tony Blair, David Cameron and Boris Johnson) have attended what one might describe as an "elite" school; all others (four Conservative, three Labour) being products of their local grammar or high schools. Equally, I would prefer our senior politicians to have some level of tertiary education, and when delusions are evidenced by pathetic comments about marriage and procreation it is clear that the writer has truly lost the plot.

Steph Johnson, Glasgow.

* "MORE people suffering from short-sightedness in the UK than ever before" ran a headline on Page 8 today (January 20).

This is surely evidenced by the current UK Government we managed – somehow – to elect.

Eric Duncan, Cardross.

DANGER OF THE ELECTIONS BILL

THE Scottish Tory MPs all voted for the Elections Bill 2021-22, which will require voters in Scotland to show voter ID in polling stations for UK parliamentary elections, while opposing vaccine passports as a vital health measure to help save lives.

The amount of voter fraud is minuscule, and the Electoral Reform Society said: “The Government's Elections Bill proposals are less about improving our democracy than they are an attack on voters’ ability to cast their ballot and have their voice count.”

The Elections Bill fails to tackle the acute issue of secretive campaign finance filtering into British politics and the lack of regulation on unincorporated associations funding politics. A classic example is Scotland Matters, which failed to disclose the London benefactor who contributed £46,000 towards its anti-SNP campaign in the run-up to last year’s Scottish elections.

The growing rise of the London think-tank industry and the numerous right-wing think-tanks which fail to reveal who funds them while acting as lobbyists and anonymous front bodies poses a far greater threat to democracy than the rare cases of voter fraud.

The Elections Bill seems to be more about disenfranchising some voters than tackling the more important issues, including preventing overseas electors donating to political parties or referendum campaigns.

Fraser Grant, Edinburgh.

KIEV DOES NOT DESERVE SUPPORT

SOME media commentators appear to be excited about the prospect of a war over Ukraine, as if it would be some video game and not a crisis that in the worst-case scenario could turn into a nuclear confrontation ("‘Russia could at any point launch an attack in Ukraine', warns US", The Herald, January 20). And the political classes view the crisis as being a useful deflection from their economic and social problems at home. Meanwhile analysis of the origins of the crisis lacks any statesmanlike response, and is replaced by the knee-jerk reaction of sending arms to the regime in Kiev.

And it is a regime that rules in Kiev, having come to power in a coup supported by the US and EU, when the pro-Russian political forces in Ukraine won an election. Since then Kiev has been underwritten politically as well as economically and militarily by the West, which at the same time expresses outrage at Russia giving similar support to the breakaway forces in the predominantly-Russian eastern Ukraine. Russian military manoeuvres in Belarus are a provocation, but Nato military manoeuvres in Poland apparently are not so. Sauce for the goose is not sauce for the gander it would appear.

Meanwhile the regime in Kiev, as corrupt as all its predecessors since independence from the USSR, has been eroding the rights of the Russian-speaking minority still under its control, limiting the use of Russian in political life and in education. More to the point, some present-day Ukrainian nationalists are following in the footsteps of their anti-Semitic forebears by erecting monuments to those who cooperated with the SS in the mass extermination of Jews, Communists and others during the Second World War. Back then, these Ukranian nationalists also fought alongside the German Wehrmacht and against the Red Army, which, no one now seems to recall, was the ally of Britain of that time.

Instead of playing dangerous war games around a fictitious "gallant little Ukraine", if there are any statesmen around, rather than political adventurists, they should be calling for new elections, internationally supervised, in the whole of the Ukraine, with the Russian-speaking east having full devolved rights in a federal state solution. Should that not be possible then the right of the eastern Ukraine to secede from the country should be recognised.

The Russians in eastern Ukraine have as much right, should they choose, to secede as has any other national group which chooses to do so.

Ian R Mitchell, Glasgow.

Read more: End the lie that Boris Johnson has saved the UK from Covid