MICHAEL Fry wrote an insightful and masterful exposé of the ramblings, both verbal and itinerant, along the route of Brexit since 2016 by the Tories and Labour, the Better Together advocates (May’s big speech was just ‘Help me!’ ... but why should EU bother?, The National, September 26).

He contrasts this with the determined and steady position taken by Michel Barnier, the EU chief negotiator.

In the final analysis, both Tory and now Labour “assurances” of obtaining this or that are chimeras. Labour’s new position at its conference of “a” bespoke deal betrays the same demand, albeit less strident, for special entitlement.

The EU is clear. You leave first and settle the three key issues agreed at the outset: cost; status of EU citizens in the UK; and the Irish border.

Then the negotiation will begin on the next phase post-Brexit when the UK is de facto out and has third-country status. The EU will decide what it will agree to. This hard fact eludes the current main UK parties.

The EU is not there to arrange a bespoke deal for Westminster.

The 27 have made that clear. The UK had a bespoke deal from within with opt-outs, rebates and other concessions. It voted to abandon that deal. In fact, if the rambling and lack of detail on how the UK will leave continues from the current UK side, the EU will simply cease to convene any future meetings. The clock still ticks.
John Edgar
Stewarton

I WRITE to support the excellent letter from Ian Stewart (The National, September 25) warning of the potential dangers in the rumoured development within the UK Brexit team, and use of the Henry VIII powers, now conveyed to the UK Cabinet.

His warning to the SNP, and particularly its leadership, is timely.

The UK is without a written constitution, indeed it is the very absence of it that has allowed Theresa May’s Tory and DUP alliance government to revert to using the English-only Henry VIII powers from 1531. It is of course scandalous – and I would suggest open to challenge, in terms of legitimacy, by the Scottish legal establishment, although to date their silence is deafening.

That apart, if the UK already had a written constitution then the present government would not have been able to use such “powers”.

Indeed, I would suggest the last thing that the post-Brexit UK Government will want is a written constitution as, of course, without one they can essentially make things up to suit their own right-wing agenda as Brexit unfolds.

I do not believe the UK Government will create a written constitution, as the current absence of one suits them very well.

Mr Stewart is, however, correct to say that it is very likely, using these same Henry VIII powers, that the UK Government will pass similar legislation to that of Spain where all regions need to vote in favour of Catalonia being independent for that to be legitimate in the law of Spain. Applied to Scotland this would require England, Wales and Northern Ireland all to vote, in a referendum, for Scottish independence.

Remaining within the UK, Scotland would then have the worst of both worlds: no constitution, but legislation that requires a UK-wide vote on Scottish independence. There would be no escape!

I know Nicola Sturgeon called for a period of “reflection”, but it’s time that was over and we all realised the gravity of this situation.

The SNP leadership need to start coming out with a vision of what independence could look like,

a defined programme of change on things that are radical like land reform, taxation of land holdings, using our oil and gas revenues to eliminate food banks and poverty, removal of nuclear weapons, etc. What are we waiting for?
John Drummond
Edinburgh

I WRITE to express my desperate disappointment at the agenda for the forthcoming 83rd SNP conference. To say the contentfor discussion is bland is an understatement. It is so non-controversial that I fear it has nothing to offer the cause of Scottish independence.

Where is the vision? Where is the programme of change? Where is the radicalism that I joined the party to deliver? It is nowhere to be seen!

The SNP, under the current leadership, has morphed into “bland”. Safe Policies that seek to appeal to everyone but will appeal to no-one.

Pete Wishart is totally right in his comments on the need to “inspire” Yes voters (The National, September 26), and it is lamentable that the First Minister has gone on record to say “the honest answer is I don’t know” when asked when the next independence referendum will take place. If you don’t know, Nicola, then it’s time you stepped aside.

We will never achieve independence at this rate.

Previous letters about the creation of a new post-Brexit constitution have rightly outlined a real threat that the next independence referendum, if we get it, will be the last. We can do better than this.

Let’s start painting a picture of what a new Scotland could look like when we have control of our own resources, a truly new “Nova Scotia”.
John Scobie
Edinburgh

I HAVE just finished the memoirs of the great Fridtjof Nansen, who led Norway to independence from Sweden. In their referendum, he got more than 99 per cent support.

The whole process took some time, however, as he had to negotiate new trade agreements. He said the biggest difficulty he had was with the English, that they were arrogant, dismissive and vindictive during the long, drawn-out negotiations.

Now this lot in Westminster have the gall to expect other countries to bend over backwards to accommodate them.
Ronald Livingstone McNeill
Strachur