WE live in strange times! All this “Brexit Britain” language is partly designed, as May puts it, to bring our disunited country back together, a bit like a jigsaw. And to build on a British brand, to make us all feel part of this “Britain”. To do this the Tories use repetitive slogans, much as advertisers do. Theresa May repeats over and over – “I am working to respect the vote of the British people” or “the people of Britain voted to have control of their borders, money and laws”. This is a piece of nonsense. The UK is a sovereign country that makes its own budgets, laws and immigration politics – re Home Office refusing visas of many major artists, adversely affecting Scotland’s international arts festivals.

All these Tory slogans are effective, even while they peddle lies and misinformation. The Tories control many press outlets while Westminster gives us confrontational and divisive politics. Brexit is a divisive, regressive and disastrous act of self sabotage – yet must be preserved at all costs! (Who is Farage anyway?) Scotland must not follow this foolish path.

Lovina Roe in her letter yesterday (When will the LibDems cease their campaign?, December 11) writes that some in Scotland don’t want to be part of the EU’s neoliberalism. I believe though we can more easily affect change through being part of the club as it were. I certainly don’t agree with everything the EU does or doesn’t do. With regard to Catalonia – I don’t want the EU being a police state either, while I do agree a Bill or Rights of some kind to protect EU citizens from unlawful treatment might be a good idea. Also we need the political protection of the EU. Ireland would be totally disregarded and ignored (as Scotland is as part of the UK union) if it wasn’t for the EU. Scotland can be a valued, equal and respected EU member – or an ignored part of the UK. Simple.

May is in Brussels talking to other EU leaders. Will this be one of her last times there? I feel incredibly sad. The EU is about far more than simply trade – its about exchanging ideas, culture, security, medicines, research, and much more. May has made no attempt to find any kind of consensus. The UK has so few referendums that we don’t know how to deal with them, while Ireland has used Citizens juries to access difficult decisions. Discussions and collaborations are good things (take note May) and usually reach better decisions. We need our own Scotland slogans and soon, in order to help keep the Scottish brand alive. Scotland has an older and more significant history, culture and heritage than any Briton, and its one of the oldest countries in Europe. And a question – why would people of one country vote to have people in another country rule over them!
P Keightley
Glasgow

DOESN’T it beggar belief the pantomime being played out at Westminster; Theresa May orchestrating unprecedented shenanigans in a vain attempt to press home her “deal”?

A deal that is the worst of all options. We notionally “leave” the EU, remove ourselves from the top table where the decisions are made, and prepare to become subject to trading and other rules and regulations we have no say in formulating.

Brexiteers wanted the return of sovereignty and despite May’s “red lines,” here she is conniving with her deal to prevent a real return of sovereignty to Britain. No support from the Brexiteers then. Meanwhile, Remainers are throwing up their hands in horror at the prospect of our global future being compromised by a plan which still doesn’t even allow us to initiate free trade deals with others, a red line failure.

Freedom of movement will still be available in the new trading area no matter the difficulties a heartless Tory driven Home Office will create: the rich will walk in, poorer but essential workers frozen out, families split by draconian and senseless regulations and asylum a rare gift from the fifth biggest economy in the world.

Yet didn’t the whole shambles from the outset really boil down to one simple premise?

Can anyone imagine leaving their golf club and demanding the committee change its rules to allow them to play for free?

Didn’t May need to get real from the outset? And wouldn’t she have had her driving force not been to place the demands of her Tory party above the interests of we ordinary citizens?

Truth is, if we were to Brexit, the only real option was always and is a no deal. A clean break. Real negotiations as equals.

Come March 29 next year the clock runs out. That’s if politicians don’t do what they always do when in difficulty, buy more time. The solution to all Britain’s Brexit deal problems is still simply no Brexit. The solution to Scotland’s problems is still no UK. It really is as simple as that. Aren’t we wasting time embarrassing ourselves on the world stage when Scots could be scripting their own independent production?
Jim Taylor
Edinburgh

MAYBE Nicola Sturgeon and Ian Blackford should congratulate Theresa Mayday on holding onto her leadership of the English Toly Party? Pundits like Pontificating Peston predicted that she would be lucky to hold on by just one vote; instead she won by nearly two thirds. Who cares in Scotland about the Bit Nat same parties, apart from the gullible, the ghoulish and the loyal lickers? Perhaps the SNP bad cunning plan was to try for Boris Karloff or Christopher Rees as the new Prince of Darkness to frighten the feartie Scottish punters into revolt?

Eugene Debs, the American socialist, warned that the person who can lead you to the promised land can just as easily lead you out of it. Carry on Nicola and Ian, we’ve had enough of being milked and moneyed in Never Never land of no hope and Tories, lead us out of it. Get us out of here, let us celebrate leaving them all behind.
Donald Anderson
Glasgow