Readers' letters - March 22

It must be stressful for Theresa May trying to exit the EU with Nicola Sturgeon fighting against her.

I wish she would work alongside the PM to get a deal for Scotland. Forget division and tackle the real issues.

We are ex-pat Scots, living in England and have nothing against SNP voters.

The Scottish Government office rules have suppressed ex-pat Scots from having a vote at independence referendums one and two. If one contacts the Scottish Office, the excuse is one has to be a resident in Scotland because it’s a bit messy proving who is a Scot. If you watch the show on TV Who Do You Think You Are? researchers go back a couple of centuries and find documents for people’s great-great-great-great-great grandfather, so we don’t believe that excuse.

As Scotland’s indy/ref one, people allowed to vote included British, EU and Commonwealth citizens if they were resident in Scotland. We felt people in the whole world got a vote, except ex-pat Scots living in the rest of the UK.

There was an extension of the franchise to include 16 and 17-year-olds. I wrote and asked could there be an extension of the franchise to include ex-pat Scots – no reply.

I read a few days ago that if there was an indy/ref two, everyone over 16 years is eligible to vote, as are European Union and Commonwealth nationals living in Scotland.

But Scottish-born people living in the rest of the UK cannot vote. English, Welsh and Northern Irish residents in Scotland can vote.

The Scottish independence referendum is an historic vote, not a general election. Turkey allows its expatriate citizens to vote in its referendum.

P O

Address supplied

Nobody listens to the ‘luvvies’

When I switched on the TV the other night, I was confronted with a recording of the greatest disaster to face the human race since the downsizing of the Wagon Wheel.

I write about the Oscar Ceremony.

To see the skin-stretched, nose-jobbed, rear-enlarged, breast-enhanced ‘luvvies’ squirming about on stage when their ‘Love-in’ fell apart was nearly as satisfying as listening to Jeremy Corbyn defending the last by-election disaster.

Nothing is more satisfying than seeing and hearing grossly overpaid nonentities making complete prats of themselves when they fall flat on their faces.

President Trump, you may be lacking in diplomatic skills, but you don’t have to worry about what the “I weigh my fee in dollars not count them” actors and actresses think about you.

Nobody listens to them.

Bernard Darbyshire

via email

Jack of all trades, master of none

Re: the appointment of George Osborne to be editor of the London Evening Standard. It appears he knows no bounds to greed – just like Tony Blair.

How, I ask, can this man devote his full attention to that of his constituency as well as edit a newspaper and the other jobs he has lined up? To me it suggests that George Osborne is going to be a ‘Jack of all trades’ and master of none, and, just like Blair, immensely wealthy because of it!

Karl Sheridan

Address supplied

House of Lords or Muppets?

Abolish the House of Lords and put the money saved into healthcare. To get paid £300 per day tax-free allowance without making any contribution is ‘fraud’ and they should be prosecuted. I think the majority there get rewarded for going to sleep.

According to Baroness D’Souza, Lord Heseltine attended only three per cent of sittings in the whole of the last Parliament, a disgrace.

Watching the majority of the peers with their heads down and eyes closed is like watching the Muppet Show.

DS

via email