Nicola Sturgeon is right – the Tories’ cruel policies are truly detestable

I was mystified to see that Nicola Sturgeon saying “I detest the Tories and everything they stand for” created a stooshie among Scotland’s unco guid (Sturgeon accused of using ‘dangerous language’ about Tories, 9 October).

After all, many in the Tory party itself think that the cruel policies of Liz Truss, Suella Braverman and Kwasi Kwarteng go much too far. These three are like the Faragists whom David Cameron once memorably described as “fruitcakes” and “loonies”.

That Cameron’s odious policies of austerity seem to fall within Truss’s critique of previous Tory administrations (being tainted by a politics of redistribution) signals her even nastier brand of rightwing extremism. Why, then, should a social democrat like Sturgeon even try to be polite about the Tory party, which for years has ruled over Scotland despite being consistently rejected at the ballot box? Alastair McLeish Edinburgh

I detest the Tories and everything they stand for. Prof Gary Craig York