I BELIEVE Mr Tusk knows that the game is finally over and that all of his persuasive powers were futile in the face of the hard Brexiteers. Perhaps not Hell, but certainly this period of the UK history will be shown as being very dark. The only light I can see is that the three Celtic countries – always outward-looking – voted to remain in Europe. There is still hope that we can negotiate deals in the future.

READ MORE: Donald Tusk says there is a special place in hell for ‘no plan’ Brexiteers

The game of “brinkmanship” is just that: see who caves in first. Instead, the EU has not been playing games. One of your readers has asked why there was not more in the way of a challenge to Brexit in the first place. From whom, I wonder? And about what? The very party who could have exerted some leadership, ie Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party, has been living in the shadows for all this time. Shame on them. Yes, Yvette Cooper has broken ranks and had the courage to make a stand but Theresa won’t listen and it’s all too late. Even an extension of time will only see more of the same.

Although a supporter for Scottish independence, I take no pleasure in watching this sorry spectacle. It’s sad proof that we are governed by incompetent politicians who are still living in the past days of the British empire. Well, we are now having to pick up the bill!

Janet Cunningham
Stirling

READ MORE: Lesley Riddoch: Was Tusk right to damn Brexit leaders? Hell yeah...​

I DOUBT if Donald Tusk is correct in seeking a corner of Hell in which to confine those ill-prepared Brexiteers who have created the chaos in which we now exist.

The reason for my doubt is that I am sure the devil is sufficiently astute to realise the difficulties that accepting such a band would bring, and that doubtless the devil would ban them from his domain. I am sure if they were to be given their own corner of Hell they would immediately want a wall put up and insist that a name change to Helengland be adopted.

Therefore, as they cannot possibly head for Heaven and they will be barred from Hell, they will have to spend eternity in a Limbo. The same Limbo they have imposed on this country for over two years.

George Kay
Burntisland

MR Tusk is wrong to say that “Tory Brexteers have a special place in Hell because they had no plan”. They had and have a very cunning plan, which is to exit the EU without any sort of deal, refusing to honour any commitments and without any continuing arrangements for trade.

As Boris Johnson succinctly described the plan: “bollocks to business”.

Mike Underwood
Linlithgow

I SHOULD like to proffer the opinion that Dante Alighieri has already provided a solution to the affable Donald Tusk’s legitimate “wondering” about “that special place in Hell” wherein our short-sighted and, contrastingly, unreflective Brexiteers may be located.

The comment certainly exercised (or could that be exorcised?), among others, Javid, Leadsom and Foster. So what does Dante in the Inferno provide by way of possible coordinates or description?

READ MORE: EU chief says even hell wouldn't welcome some Brexiteers​

Well, Dante’s journey through Hell does start in a forest that is dark, with no clear path. Tusk was not wide of the mark from the outset.

Amidst this condition of confusion Dante stands in need of a guide who will show him a path out of this darkness and into the light. Enter Virgil, the voice of reason leading Dante from this darksome place, where wisdom is lacking, to where justice and order abide.

Since Hell is that condition devoid of reason and order, it is surely where “no sketch of a plan” is to be found. Tusk is doing well.

Now where could our Brexiteers be? Perhaps in their readiness to take, by guile and deception particularly, the people of the nations of the UK into those dangers that surely threaten their wellbeing, indeed imperil the common good, the “promoters of Brexit” would most surely be found in the eight chasm, or even the tenth, of the eight Circle of Lower Hell.

Here, respectively, are to be encountered the corrupt advisers and the falsifiers.

Among the former Dante places Ulysses, who beguiled his old companions and countrymen to make a journey, a last journey, which Dante describes as a “folle volo”, a “mad flight”. Might we apply this to Brexit, which is not at all unlike, “the passage the demented Ulysses took…”?

Donald Tusk may not be the “Greyhound” envisaged by Dante, but I say he is engagé, as was Dante: his comments are intended to point up error, and to contribute to the defence of the common good.

Patrick Hynes
Airdrie

I READ Brian Patton’s letter (February 7) with interest. I contacted the then justice minister about a year ago regarding Police Scotland officers wearing a Union flag on their uniforms, and received the same “could not care less” reply from a junior civil servant, “that it was a matter for the Chief Constable.”

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Sadly the unregulated wearing of the Union flag is (under the guise of a police charity registered in England) is becoming more and more common. I first complained about this almost two years ago around about Brexit time. To no avail. It’s time for a lethargic Scottish Government to wake up and see the political danger of their “startling complacency”.

Gordon C Ford
via email

REGARDING Costa’s refusing Scottish banknotes, I had a similar experience in a Waitrose store in Oxfordshire when my £20 bank note was refused on the spurious grounds that there were counterfeit Scottish notes in circulation – as if the same isn’t true of Bank of England notes! At least Waitrose eventually had the good grace to apologise and admit it should never have happened. I suggest Costa do the same.

Evelyn Halliday
via email

READ MORE: Costa prompts outrage after refusal of Scottish banknote​