BORIS Johnson should go. There was sufficient in Sue Gray’s update report to confirm this and frankly we don’t need to wait for the Met to do its job. He has behaved in a way most unfitting of a parliamentarian, let alone that standard expected of a Prime Minister. He has broken the rules ("PM at bay as report damns failure of No 10 leadership", The Herald, February 1).

This said, one of the Prime Minister's main opponents, critics and most ardent accuser of him breaking the rules and of his wholly unacceptable behaviour is the SNP 's Ian Blackford, who similarly behaved in a most unfitting and unacceptable manner in the Commons.

Mr Blackford, knowing the rules – whether he likes them or not – clearly broke them, as he claims Mr Johnson has done, during the Commons session on Monday. He was given at least four opportunities by the Speaker to show some contrition, but chose not to, and rather allowing his heart to rule his head, carried on with his point ("Blackford ejected from Commons after claim PM ‘misled’ Parliament", The Herald, January 31).

This character trait – the heart ruling the head – is very common amongst nationalists. He was kicked out of the Chamber for his disrespectful and rule-breaking behaviour.

Mr Johnson broke the rules and should go. Mr Blackford should be judged to do the same, as his behaviour in the Commons was as offensive to Scots as the behaviour of Boris Johnson is to the Conservative Party.

Paul McPhail, Glasgow.

* I FIND it hard to believe that I am feeling sorry for Ian Blackford, but I am. He was ejected from the House of Commons for telling the truth – “The Prime Minister has misled this House”. The evidence?

Boris Johnson: “There was no party – no rules were broken.”

Sue Gray: “Some events should not have been allowed. They were in breach of the rules.”

What more does anyone need to condemn this man?

Robin Mather, Musselburgh.

* WHAT a curious place the House of Commons is. One member can lie about another but no member may tell the truth about the liar without being expelled.

An unprincipled rogue (if one could even imagine that such a person might gain high office) could exploit that to advantage. How fortunate we are then that decorum, dignity and veracity are sacrosanct in the smugly self-styled Mother of all Parliaments.

The envy of the world and a beacon of hope indeed.

Grant McKechnie, Glasgow.

THE PM WILL SURVIVE

BORIS Johnson was a poor journalist, a disastrous Foreign Secretary and has been a bungling Prime Minster, but he is a brilliant survivor and he did get us out of Europe, for which I am eternally grateful.

Come hell or high water he will see his term out.

Dennis Forbes Grattan, Aberdeen.

UNWISE TACTICS FROM THE SNP

FOLLOWING Sue Gray's findings on Downing Street partying, SNP Commons leader Ian Blackford has repeatedly demanded Boris Johnson's resignation. But is this tactically wise? Let's remember the SNP's overarching raison d'être: UK break-up. In this ambition, with Boris Johnson apparently so unpopular in Scotland, the Prime Minister is arguably an asset to Scottish nationalism. Rishi Sunak, Liz Truss, or Sir Keir Starmer would all prove less useful personalities for SNP ad hominem attacks.

Many believe Nicola Sturgeon's nationalist narrative woefully weak on economic, social and cultural grounds; personal criticism of the current PM seemingly is all she and Mr Blackford have to advance their faltering separatist cause.

Martin Redfern, Melrose.

LOOK AT THE BIG PICTURE

THE so-called Partygate scandal goes on. But attending a party is not a crime, not in a normal world anyway.

What Boris Johnson and his lieutenants should be under investigation for is stopping us, the people, attending parties. Denying elderly people in the last months of their life the right to see their loved ones. Removing our right to breathe fresh air. Ruining the education of a whole generation of children. Harming the career prospects of young people. Wrecking thousands of small businesses. Putting the nation into the highest level of debt ever seen. Overseeing ballooning hospital waiting lists. Putting irrational fear into millions of people.

Let's forget the minor distractions and look at the big picture.

Geoff Moore, Alness.

INDY IS NOT ABOUT GREED

THE nature of morality – goodness and evil, social and personal – has fascinated and troubled great minds for thousands of years.

It was, nevertheless, interesting to read Michael Sheridan’s confident condemnation of the morality of people – like me – who campaign for Scottish independence, and Scotland’s right to manage her own natural resources (Letters, January 31).

Our campaign to control the huge wealth of North Sea oil was in fact waged and lost long ago, in the 1970s. Westminster has since disposed of 50 years of oil revenues: Mrs Thatcher’ s “Big Bang” in the 1980s combined them with a series of disastrous privatisations of clearing and savings banks, building societies and national service industries, including water and electricity. Harold Macmillan lamented the sale of UK “family silver”; ordinary people lost ownership of UK institutions; the consequences are relentless, emerging in the form of continuing bank crises, sewage-ridden beaches and food-bank poverty while the English NHS moves on apace to complete privatisation.

Mr Sheridan might reflect on the social morality of all of that, not to mention a bankrupt Westminster determined to extract every ounce of oil from the Cambo field, despite false promises to COP26.

The morality of Norway’s Sovereign Oil Fund is very different. Norway kept control of its oil reserves; in 1987 the Norwegian Prime Minister, Gro Haarlem Brundtland, led the UN Commission Report Our Common Future which identified climate change as an urgent global threat and highlighted the need to support the most vulnerable nations. Norway has since honoured that moral principle repeatedly – using its sovereign wealth fund to lead international aid, most recently during the Covid pandemic. It also invests massively in alternative energy research.

We can only regret “what might have been” if Scotland, closely linked to Norway for hundreds of years, had managed to retain some control of oil revenues and followed the vision of our Scandinavian neighbour.

The moral, environmental and global importance of taking control of our Scottish energy policy and all our natural resources is crystal clear from these lessons of recent history. The Scottish Government’s impressive strategy of investing in sustainable research projects – moving Scotland through wind, wave, tidal and hydro power towards successful use of green hydrogen – also demonstrates its international commitment to work with Norway and other world leaders on climate change.

On morality and greed, I would say to Mr Sheridan: the campaign for Scottish independence was never about how much money there would be, but what would be done with it. Nothing has changed.

Frances McKie, Evanton.

THE PITFALLS OF PR SYSTEMS

PETER Russell (Letters, February 1) advocates proportional representation, of which there are of course different systems, but he and other PR supporters should note their pitfalls in practice versus “first past the post” systems. They encourage the multiplication of parties, can benefit small parties disproportionately, and lead to excessive horse-trading behind closed doors.

Germany’s Bundestag election was on September 26, 2021 with six parties winning between 206 and 39 seats of the 736 seats. Minor parties gained more than four million votes (8.5%) but only one seat. It took more than two months, until December 8, before the new government was formed.

The normally-sensible Dutch (bias alert – my wife is one) were even more extreme. The general election was from March 15-17 2021 for the 150 members of the House of Representatives. No fewer than 89 parties registered but “only” 37 met the participation requirements; none gained more than 21.3% of the votes, with 24 well under one per cent. After almost 10 months of haggling by politicians reluctant to give and take, the new government was finally agreed and officially formed on January 10, 2022.

Is that really more democratic than our first past the post system with “broad church” parties comprising politicians with a reasonable range of opinions such as most of us have in practice on various topics in our personal and social lives, enabling a new government to be formed usually within 24-48 hours?

John Birkett, St Andrews.

Read more: Partygate shows just how feeble is Scotland's voice

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