Bring all to the Brexit table

Sir, – Whilst I am pleased to see Brexit negotiations may now move forward to phase two, I am extremely critical of of the Conservative Government’s continuing “tribal” stance, that of they alone being at the negotiating table, particularly for phase two.

Having spent some 40 years negotiating multinational international agreements, I quickly found it much more realistic, and productive, where we had various interested parties, with divergent views, to conjoin them into our negotiating team.

By doing this, they were, to an extent “sucked in” to participating in and finalising agreed contractual texts.

This avoided having to negotiate on two fronts – in this case with the other EU nations on the one hand, and the Labour, Liberal Democrats, and devolved administrations in Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland on the other. Numerically this may be a challenge, but as we are dealing with 27 nations on the other side, and the huge EU administration machine, I do not see it as a problem. In addition, the Conservative Brexit team, and Mrs May, are constantly having to devote time and attention trying to rebuff continual sniping and criticism from the likes of Corbyn, Sturgeon, the DUP, etc., instead of pure focus on Brexit.

Finally, by having all parties as participants, the ultimately agreed Brexit terms (or walking away from it) will have the consensus of all parties and interests, rather than the Conservatives (with no real Parliamentary majority) trying to “scrape”, their unilaterally recommended Brexit terms through the Commons and the Lords.

This matter is of such major significance to the future of the whole of the United Kingdom, that it should not be left, just to one (weak) party alone. Hamish H Carlton. Gowrie Cottage, Little Dunkeld, Perthshire.

Angus Council is getting rid of 800 of their 4,000 staff in the next three years. If this is typical of the rest of the country, almost 50,000 council workers across Scotland will lose their jobs. This will easily fund pay rises for those remaining