Who on earth would want a friend like Douglas Ross?

Ruth Marr, Stirling.

• IN the early 1970s the great Anglo-Scottish journalist James Cameron produced a BBC Scotland piece on whether Scottish independence was achievable, on which he asserted that it was not, as what he dubbed as the “opinion formers” in the media were entirely opposed. This broad assumption plays out across all politics, however (witness the sycophancy of Tories and Labour toward Rupert Murdoch), and the present travails of the Tories and SNP can be laid both at their own conduct in government, but also the way it is presented to us in the press and on TV by a select commentariat (none of whom supports Scottish independence).

It is very obvious that Rishi Sunak is now playing second fiddle to both Keir Starmer and Nigel Farage in the southern press, but you wouldn’t buy a used car from any of the three.

The opportunist conduct of Douglas Ross toward “friend” David Duguid may define his career from now on in the media, and not in a good way. The very least the Scottish Tories could do is recompense Mr Duguid for any financial loss their shoddy decision will cost him; any personal grievance will be more difficult to assuage.

GR Weir, Ochiltree.

Treating the voters with contempt

WE have now had confirmation that no one should believe anything the Scottish Conservatives say, courtesy of Douglas Ross. Back in 2020 on becoming the Conservative leader in Scotland he announced he would be standing down from Westminster at the next General Election to concentrate on his role north of the Border.

The announcement of this General Election has heard some 80 Conservative MPs announcing they are not standing for re-election, Mr Ross being one of them, yet now we have his u-turn.

He is treating the electorate with contempt.

Let’s just remind ourselves of the record of Douglas Ross's party: crashing the economy, inflicting sky-high fuel costs and mortgages on the country and imposing 14 years of austerity. I am sure the voters of Aberdeen North and Moray East will reflect on this.

Catriona C Clark, Falkirk.

Hypocrisy of John Swinney

OH how he does judge everyone except his own. The idea of John Swinney of all people commenting so piously on the actions of others when he refused to condemn in the same terms his own friend for attempting to defraud the taxpayer whilst also being leader of a party utterly riven by scandal is incredible ("PM's D-day dodge was a 'breathtakingly terrible decision", heraldscotland, June 7). If supporting someone who fraudulently claimed a huge amount of taxpayer cash is not "breathtakingly terrible", I do not know what is.

Jamie Black, Largs.

Shame on Rishi Sunak

THAT Lord Cameron did not forcefully tell Rishi Sunak that his duty as PM was to attend the main D-Day commemoration and refuse to take his place, shows the judgment of both to be abysmal ("Rishi Sunak’s accused of D-Day ‘dereliction’ after skipping ceremony", heraldscotland, June 7). What a lack of common sense and political nous - clearly both need a period spent in Mr Sunak's proposed national service.

Moreover, what an insult to the UK, to presidents Biden and Macron and all our allies in the Second World War, to our serving forces and of course to the D-Day and other veterans, living and dead, including the 2.5million Indians who served in history's greatest volunteer army, many of whom in June 1944 were fighting with "unsurpassed bravery" in Churchill's words, to prevent Japan's invasion of their country.

John Birkett, St Andrews.

READ MORE: My three wishes: to see Douglas Ross booted out of all of his jobs

READ MORE: Watch out: Farage could make things much worse for Scotland

Rewriting history

SO Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes appears to be rewriting history as she claims the SNP has never been opposed to new North Sea oil and gas exploration ("SNP ‘never said no’ to new oil and gas licences, claims Deputy First Minister", The Herald, June 6). I can understand the SNP, faced with losing Central Belt Westminster seats by the shedload, is desperate to gain votes in the Tory-leaning north-east, but is Ms Forbes really going the right way about it?

Nicola Sturgeon and Humza Yousaf were both adamantly opposed to new drilling positions with Ms Sturgeon vociferous in her criticism of the new Cambo field. She even expressed utter contempt at Rishi Sunak granting 100 new oil and gas licences, accusing him of damaging the planet. Rather than making it appear that the SNP has a well-thought-out long-term energy strategy, Ms Forbes is making herself look duplicitous and frankly stupid, and her party shallow and cheaply opportunistic.

Martin Redfern, Melrose.

FM is proving to be a phoney

JOHN Swinney has accused Labour and Tories of concealing the true effects of their fiscal policy from the public. Yet again, the stench of hypocrisy reeks from the SNP, which has had many years to make a sound fiscal case for independence and has yet to do so. To me, this simply means that the fiscal case would not make good reading and be vulnerable to scrutiny from respectable economists. If it was a sound case, then I am sure it would have been published by now to boost the indy Yes vote; why conceal it otherwise?

Honest John is proving to be as phoney as his predecessors.

Duncan Sooman, Milngavie.

Will Clacton follow the others?

I SHARE the sentiments of Andy Maciver when he comments that Nigel Farage is not daft ("Don’t underestimate Nigel Farage, he is clearly no fool, The Herald, June 7). The recent actions of Mr Farage reminded me of the words of Macbeth relative to his possession of "vaulting ambition", which has been defined as having a strong wish to be very successful, powerful, wealthy, and a belief that such a state is above everything else.

I wonder if the constituency of Clacton, for which Mr Farage will be standing for Reform UK, will join the list of other constituencies - Eastleigh, Salisbury, Bexhill and Battle, South Thanet (twice), Bromley and Chislehurst, and Buckingham, in all of which Mr Farage stood unsuccessfully as a candidate to become an MP. Could it be that all these other constituencies took the view that they were unwilling to be used to serve the ends and ambition of Mr Farage and that Clacton will arrive at a similar position on General Election day?

Ian W Thompson, Lenzie.

Will it be eighth time lucky for Nigel Farage in this General Election? (Image: PA)

Nuclear is not the cheap option

NORMAN McNab (Letters, June 1) misses the point when he criticises renewable energy.

Electricity is four times more expensive than gas per kilowatt hour to buy from the retail energy companies thanks to Ofgem, but electricity generated from renewables is not four times more expensive to generate than electricity from gas or indeed from nuclear. It is in fact about a third the cost of electricity generated from gas and half that from nuclear.

The UK Government has not updated the levelised cost for nuclear energy since 2016, however the Committee on Climate Change predicts that by the late 2020s, the levelised costs for nuclear are expected to be between £65/MWh and £75/MWh, down from earlier schemes that ranged from £80/MWh to £95/MWh.

As the levelised cost for generation with onshore wind is £38 per MWh this would still make nuclear about twice as expensive as onshore wind generation assuming that the levelised costs for nuclear do fall, which is far from certain. The cost of generation from renewables is similarly predicted to fall, making it probable that the 2:1 differential will be maintained.

An oversight in Mr McNab’s assessment is where domestic properties only use gas for heating and gas costs cannot be compared for devices that use electricity.

Even at present, because heat pumps can provide over 3KW of heat for every 1KW of electricity there is little cost difference between gas and electricity using a heat pump for heating but with proper pricing for electricity, gas could not compete with electricity from renewables for heating using a heat pump.

Don’t be conned by advertisements which state that electric heating is 100% efficient. Whilst that is an accurate statement it takes no account of the fact that electricity costs four times as much as gas and anyone considering electric heating using anything other than a heat pump will be paying a lot more than they would be paying using a gas central heating system.

Nuclear is not the only option for the base load and it is unlikely to be the best, or indeed the cheapest option, especially in Scotland where there are alternatives.

For interest, I am not against nuclear generation and do not consider it to be particularly unsafe and can remember standing on top of the reactor in the Chapelcross power station during a school trip.

Iain McIntyre, Sauchie.

• NORMAN MacNab fails to appreciate the huge potential for 100%-reliable tidal power in the UK, with its many dammable estuaries and lochs. A recent report to the Royal Society suggests it could supply 11% of the UK’s current annual electricity demand (a Severn Barrage has been mooted for almost a century).

Furthermore, we can sling road/rail across dams. Look at the Black Isle, for example; damming the two firths would cut 15 miles off the drive between Nairn and Invergordon (relieving Inverness of that traffic); it would be a boon to the whole area. Moreover, excess power can be used to create "green hydrogen".

So why hasn't tidal been harnessed to any significant extent? Because Big Energy doesn't want ultra-cheap electricity, and it contributes to Tory Party funds. We can only hope that the coming government will tap this source of almost free electricity staring us in the face.

George Morton, Rosyth.