IAN W Thompson (Letters, June 8) asks if Nigel Farage will suffer defeat in Clacton as he hasthe seven other times he has stood in a General Election. No is my answer, as I believe he will be elected despite the abuse, and now milkshake, hurled at him by vocal activists trying to shut him up.

With the enthusiastic crowds he draws, he articulates the concerns of many, perhaps the silent indigenous majority, particularly when he addresses the levels of immigration in recent years. He is a lone voice pointing out the increasingly obvious problems arising because firstly there has been little or no matching infrastructure growth in for example the areas of health, housing and education to cope with the millions who have arrived and are forecast to arrive, and secondly the apparent failure of many to wish to integrate.These are matters of growing concern with which the so-called Mother of Parliaments has failed to deal so far. If left unresolved, they can only fester towards civil unrest and there is no indication that whoever is elected to form the next government in July has any idea as to how to do any better.

Mr Farage is dedicated to applying relentless pressure on that government on the first step of bringing immigration back under control as it used to be, and his exertions to that end will be that much stronger when coming from the Opposition benches in Westminster.

Alan Fitzpatrick, Dunlop.

Immigration call misguided

IN response to Doug Maughan (Letters, June 7) I feel he is being rather naive in wanting more immigration to Scotland. Whilst I certainly have no problem with immigrants per se, no one can deny we are struggling very badly to provide for all the people already in Scotland. Fewer teachers, near-impossibility of seeing a GP or dentist, unacceptable hospital waiting lists and more and more local authorities declaring a housing crisis. Also many young folk are struggling to find any real job paying a decent wage.

If we can get government action on resolving these basic issues, then maybe we would be in a position to increase our population.

M Carr, Glasgow.

READ MORE: Who on earth would want a friend like Douglas Ross?

READ MORE: Why is Scotland so poor at attracting badly-needed immigrants?

Migrants should be welcomed

THERE are people in several parties telling us how damaging immigration is to the UK. Now while there is actually no evidence that this is true, it might be instructive to look at the effects of immigration on other countries in the past.

The extermination of the native population of Tasmania, hunted down like beasts, or the Opium Wars which enriched Scottish capitalists at the expense of the Chinese people, backed, of course by British military force, might suggest that the immigrants who perpetrated these evils were less than welcome when they arrived.

The immigrants of course were the British, whose actions in stripping the resources from the peoples of Africa, Australia, the Caribbean, Ireland and the Indian subcontinent and elsewhere are a matter of historical record.

Immigrants to the UK, encouraged by successive governments to come here to fill staff shortages in health, social care, industry and transport have contributed to our standard of living, not to mention the uptick in taxes as a result of increased economic activity and personal taxation.

So, why are immigrants now regarded as a threat?

AJ Clarence, Prestwick.

Flynn the clear winner

FRIDAY night explained why Labour didn’t want Stephen Flynn to appear alongside Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak in a General Election debate as he was judged the clear winner of Friday night's event by introducing the home truths that the London parties don’t want to mention such as detailing the benefits of immigration for public services and denouncing Brexit ("Mordaunt left red-faced as Sunak’s D-day exit ‘wrong’", The Herald, June 8) .

However, the TV debate seems to have overshadowed David Duguid’s angry rebuttal of Douglas Ross’s disgraceful claims about his health and suitability to stand as a Tory candidate at the General Election in which “he was looking forward to campaigning”.

Mary Thomas, Edinburgh.

• YOU have to laugh at Stephen Flynn in the BBC election debate, banging on about Brexit being "an unmitigated disaster for the economy". I didn't vote for Brexit either, but I've got some common sense and a decent enough grasp of economics to understand that if Brexit (ending a 50-year union) has had detrimental consequences for the UK economy, the negative impact of Scottish secession (ending a 300-plus-year union) would be so many times worse.

After all, 61% of Scotland's trade is with elsewhere in the UK. Scotland, though, is very much more closely interwoven with the rest of the UK than the EU, not only economically but also legally, socially, and culturally. And we all know Scotland's 9% deficit level means a decade or more of austerity before there's any chance at all of joining the EU.

C'mon, Mr Flynn, try to show some intelligence. You can't, in a one-off debate, consider Brexit an unmitigated disaster yet every other day of the year insist Scottish independence will be just hunky dory.

Martin Redfern, Melrose.

Shooting down Utopia

IAIN Cope (Letters, June 7) has repeated (as if that makes him correct) that a successful post-independent strategy would involve “capital investment to develop an under-developed country”. He then suggests Colin Montgomery (Letters, June 5) was constructing a straw man by questioning him.

Mr Cope is effectively telling us we need to trust the SNP Government which after 15 years of power has created an under-developed Scotland. He then says we will have capital investment but doesn’t know where we going to borrow the cash required or from whom or what the terms will be, or indeed who will underwrite our debt.

In this new Utopia of Mr Cope’s we will solve our colossal debt challenges by attracting high tax-paying individuals to Scotland. We are currently the highest-taxed population in the UK so I’m not sure how we attract these high tax-paying individuals. Maybe Mr Cope can explain in more detail.

John Gilligan, Ayr.

A new low for Douglas Ross

MY usual reaction to letters from Ruth Marr swings from amazement at her gullibility to all things SNP, a shaking of the head at the outrageous interpretations she ascribes to Holyrood incompetence by blaming everything on Westminster and downright consternation at her lauding of the so-called Scottish Government "freebies" that actually everyone knows come out of general taxation.

Today (June 8), however, for the first time ever, and I never thought I would ever write this, I totally agree with her letter eviscerating Douglas Ross and the disgraceful treatment handed out to David Duguid and suggest that Mr Ross will surely reap the whirlwind if he does not u-turn on his decision to stand in Aberdeen North.

Politics is a dirty business but I believe that in this instance Mr Ross has descended to a new level of unacceptable behaviour.

James Martin, Bearsden.

Stephen FlynnStephen Flynn (Image: PA)

Apology is worthless

I, PROBABLY like millions of people, was embarrassed to learn that our Prime Minister left the D-Day commemoration early to do an election broadcast for ITV.

The King and Queen, the President of the USA, President Macron of France, and President Zelenskyy of the Ukraine stayed and Sir Kerr Starmer the Labour leader also stayed. Lord Cameron, our Foreign Secretary, did however stay.

Rishi Sunak's actions showed a total lack of respect to not only the world leaders, but more importantly for the survivors of that horrific event who had attended to pay their respects to the fallen.

It's little wonder that the Conservative Party is at an all-time low in the opinion polls when its leader can show scant regard for our brave men and women who gave their lives for our freedom.

On this occasion an apology is worthless.

Neil Stewart, Balfron.

Excuse makes things worse

WHILST Rishi Sunak admitted making a mistake re his early D-Day departure, he up-front offered partial excuses of having attended the British ceremonies for the British veterans, and that the itinerary was planned in advance of calling the election. Neither of these excuses means anything, and actually they indicate a stunning lack of judgment.

This country relied on our allies in 1944, and in the uncertain world Mr Sunak so frequently mentions, we rely on them now. So planning in advance to snub them makes his “mistake” so much worse.

He has apologised to the UK electorate, but we need to know if he also called the other world leaders to apologise to them and to their veterans. We are eternally grateful for their service too. Can Mr Sunak confirm these sincerely apologetic calls were also quickly made?

Iain MacDonald, Dundee.

• WHETHER Rishi Sunak was right or wrong to leave the D-Day event I will let other people decide.

However, did those brave souls who fought and died for our freedoms, not make the ultimate sacrifice to enable all of us to make decisions, rash or otherwise?

Dan Edgar, Rothesay.