Keep the cash

The Tory government lost its majority because many in the electorate don’t want a hard Brexit, but what is a soft Brexit? The options are clear, we can continue to be a member of the bloated, bureaucratic and undemocratic Union, or we can adopt the Norwegian model which gives access to the single market, with its costs and open borders, or we could just leave and not pay a penny in dues. This would send a clear message to the bureaucrats that there are two sides to the negotiation and that we are not going to be bullied into paying for their very generous pensions etc.

There would then be £15 billion to provide grants for fisheries, farming, scientists and others – we would make sure the money was used for the benefit of the whole country.

JAMES MACINTYRE Clarendon Road, Linlithgow

The role, influence and power of “advisers” in No 10 surely needs scrutiny. But why, particularly after Theresa May became the “first among equals” without even a contest, did cabinet ministers meekly accept her kitchen cabinet decision-making and humiliations at the hands of her now-sacked “co-chiefs of staff”, which are now being reported?

Why did they not insist on at least reviewing the draft manifesto before it was finalised, and on participating fully in the countrywide campaign as a competent team? They now appear to have justified the apocryphal Spitting Image sketch of the cabinet as Mrs T’s “vegetables”.

Were they all in favour of the election in the first place, with its overlong seven-week campaign, which must have severely diverted the attention of the whole cabinet – not only the Brexit team – from necessary final preparations for the vital EU negotiations?

In the current disarray, the recent silence of Conservative Party chairman Sir Patrick Mcloughlin speaks volumes. Where did he stand in all this?

JOHN BIRKETT, Horseleys Park, St Andrews