WATCHING the Chancellor’s entrance and speech to the party faithful in their northern powerhouse of Manchester takes me back a few years to a certain Labour conference somewhere else in Englandshire.

The icy stare that David Cameron gave George Osborne from his seat among the other party minions reminded me of a certain power struggle – the one Tony Blair gave Gordon Brown, before he was usurped by the latter.

Are we witnessing another night of the long knives? Time will tell.

And if we do see another such power shift within this Tory Government, then those who find themselves struggling now had better hunker down for even worse times to come.

Bob Harper,

63a Pittenweem Road, Anstruther.

ANOTHER Conservative Party Conference and yet again Ruth Davidson goes through the charade of predicting a “best ever result” for the Tories in the forthcoming Scottish Parliamentary elections (“Davidson eyes Tory revival at May elections”, The Herald, October 5). This would mean more than the 18 MSPs they secured at the first devolved elections in 1999 and is the same pledge made in advance of every previous Westminster and Holyrood election since 2003.

Earlier this year we were told by senior Tory figures that the General Election would see three Tory MPs returned north of the Border. The one seat held prior to the election was retained by fewer than 800 votes and the vote share slumped to 14.9 per cent, a drop of just under two per cent on the 2010 election. To put this into perspective, it is the worst result ever for the Tories in a General Election in Scotland, symptomatic of continued Tory decline north of the border.

Indeed, the Tories last week lost one of their few councillors in a by-election in Aberdeen, which saw the SNP triumph.

The Tories have made little headway in Scotland as their brand is still a toxic one, pure and simple, a point recognised by Murdo Fraser who in standing against Ms Davidson for the leadership in 2011 acknowledged this and called for the party to be disbanded and started again.

For Ms Davidson, failure to improve on the 2011 election result will provide further evidence of the continued decline of the Scottish Tories, a party which in its current form is on life support and is self-evidently failing to engage the Scottish electorate.

Alex Orr,

Flat 2, 77 Leamington Terrace, Edinburgh.

IT was interesting to read of David Cameron's speech with shouted audience responses (“only one party is fighting for the Union, says PM”, The Herald, October 5).

To his question "Is the health service better off in Scotland under the SNP?" it would have been more interesting if the audience response had been: "Compared with what?"

Within a few days of Addenbrooke's being placed in" Special Measures", with 15 other NHS Trusts in similar circumstances, about two-thirds are in debt, more than 30 have no chief executive, and NHS England refuses to publish The National Institiute for Health and Care Excellence's report on safe staff numbers. It might have been more appropriate if he posed his questions about the service under his own jurisdiction.

David Hay,

12 Victoria Park, Minard.