MORE than two years have passed since the EU referendum without the UK Government agreeing a position on trade but on Friday evening, after most folk’s weekend had begun, agreement was struck. May had finally faced up to the Brexiteers, to whom she had previously pandered.

In truth the agreement, to be followed up by a white paper, didn’t amount to a hill of beans anyway with a commitment to freedom of movement of goods and a rejection of the other three freedoms which are intrinsic to the single market. This is classic cherry-picking but it was sufficiently pro-EU to infuriate the Rees-Mogg hardline Brexit brigade and is sure to be rejected by the EU anyway.

As the snake-like Michael Gove was celebrating the newfound Cabinet unity on the Andrew Marr show on Sunday, the vacuous David Davis was writing his resignation letter to be received and answered by the PM before most folk’s working week had even begun! Even Armando Iannucci couldn’t make this political comedy up.

Cabinet “unity” and adherence to the doctrine of collective responsibility had lasted, well, no time at all really. Since day one Theresa May’s hesitant and ineffective premiership could have been parodied as a divine comedy by a modern Dante, but now we are into the inferno; deep chaos which is not funny anymore.

No-one can think of anyone to lead the UK out of the chaos and that is why May has survived so long. England is a deeply divided little country without a vision, and seems paralysed. Events seem almost outwith their control. Scotland may have to make its own move soon.

With blinkered little Englander mentality, some believe the EU will fold. No they won’t. As populist, right wing, anti-democratic and often racist surges occur in countries such as Poland, Hungary, Italy and even Germany, they will stand firm against the populists and Atlanticist fantasists in Britain to preserve the EU and its great achievement, the single market. As EU frustration and anger grows with our crass ineptitude, they will increasingly favour a hard line with the UK and many will advocate that the UK, the perpetually reluctant Europeans, is just kicked out. They are sure in the knowledge that the EU will lose much less than the UK will following a hard Brexit.

So we now hang on a thread as Europeans. But there are a couple of good signs. First, by choosing to retain freedom of movement of goods, the government have rejected the Canada model for trading with the EU. The Canada model amounts to hard Brexit with the thinnest of cushions. And Europe will reject our latest cherry-picking, so we have the starkest of choices, which I have said all along were the only two likely to emerge: full single market membership in the style of Norway or hard Brexit. That’s it.

The other good sign is that the lazy and inept David Davis has resigned. The EU will be pleased and hope, like I do, that his replacement cuts quickly through the bluster and posturing and gets the UK to realise the stark choice available to us now.

After Friday’s Chequers can-kicking exercise Nicola Sturgeon was right to say “game on”, as she has consistently prioritised full single market membership and saw a slight break in the clouds. The break has even grown slightly with Davis’s resignation, but the storm is intensifying nevertheless.

What are Europe, the UK and Scotland going to look like next year when the storm is over? Exciting times, but intensely worrying because Brexit is such a monumental error.

David Crines
Hamilton

ONE could call the Secretary of State for Scotland to account for the policy stance on Brexit after Friday’s purdah at Chequers and ask what its implications are for Scotland. But he was not there. He has been cast into outer darkness by a Union we are supposed to be an “equal” member of.

Now David David has gone. What next, UK? What next Scotland and Holyrood? Is the Tory regime at Westminster about to fall? How will Corbyn frame his next questions in this deep crisis in the ruling regime at Westminster? Last time Corbyn mumbled about buses! The UK body politic is in deep existential crisis and Corbyn is concerned about buses.

The UK duopoly parties, Labour and Tory, are in crisis due to deep inner inconsistencies on the EU which have come to the fore. Or rather one should say the two English duopoly parties. This is an English crisis! The “elephant” in the room is out of control and has started to undermine by its actions the Union that its adherents north of the Tweed hold as necessary for Scotland’s wellbeing.

As England is becoming more ungovernable and politically unstable, let us make preparations to leave and realign ourselves with Continental Europe and overthrow the democratic deficit here.

After all, we voted to remain!!

John Edgar
Kilmaurs

HAVEN’T we now reached the point of being cringeingly embarassed to be British?

Michael Gove utters a warning: “the EU had to be more generous or the UK would have no option than to walk away without a deal.” Why do we have to suffer the outpourings of arrogant idiocy from Gove and his clique? Precisely who do they think they are? Isn’t their problem they have never understood that they don’t have a strong position, and the EU doesn’t have to negotiate?

The EU is not prepared to give Britain anything like the deal the Brexit gurus want. Its continued existence depends on it always being the best deal to be a member.

I hope EU members realise that the childish arrogant shenanigans being orchestrated by the Brexit clique do not represent me or, I suspect, Scots at large, because Gove’s conduct is entirely unlikely to foster the relationship of respect needed between parties conducting mutually beneficial business together.

Not in my name, Gove. Grow up and learn respect rather than firing warnings you have absolutely no chance of following through on.

And, aren’t Westminster’s characters like Gove precisely why we should be independent?

Jim Taylor
Edinburgh

J HAMILTON (Letters, July 9) predicts rightly that the Secretary of State for Scotland will probably be ennobled. However, in a post-Brexit scenario the European ermine will no longer be imported here and so he will have to settle for British weasel.

Richard Easson
Dornoch