A bit of a mess

Theresa May’s failed attempt to strengthen her position ahead of the forthcoming Brexit negotiations has resulted in a hung Parliament, creating more instability in these uncertain times.

We are facing greater challenges than at any point since the Second World War.

Brexit, terror, global warming, debt, the housing crisis, an ageing demographic and many other big issues need addressing. We need to come together to resolve the many challenges we face, in a way not seen in recent times and yet, as the General Election result has shown, we are more divided than ever.

The starting point for greater unity needs to be the establishment of a political system that returns a government that actually reflects the will of the people. Our current system marginalises minorities and gives disproportionate power to others.

The Conservatives under Theresa May will now return to office having gained significantly less than 50 per cent of the popular vote, propped up by a party that returned 10 MPS. The country will be ruled by an alliance that the majority of people voted against. The TORY/DUP MPS will be able to implement whatever policies they can agree on, having received fewer than 14 million votes combined.

In a nation of more than 65 million people, this is not democracy in action.

The SNP won 35 seats in the new Parliament having gathered just under a million votes. In contrast, the Liberal Dem- ocrats’ 2.37 million votes give them 12 MPS, while the Greens’ and Ukip’s million plus votes combined gives them just one MP between them.

We require unity to meet the great challenges we face today, yet there will be none while people’s voices continue to be marginalised and disproportionately represented in Parliament.

Theresa May asked the electorate to get behind her “strong and stable leadership”. A majority rejected that at the ballot box and there is a feeling people want a higher degree of engagement from our politicians and more of a say in the decisions that effect them.

We need strong and stable government like never before. Only a more consensual politics can provide that and prevent the wild swings from left to right (and vice versa) that have plagued the UK for years and left us in the mess we now find ourselves in. KENNEDY STEWART

Hill-grind Lerwick, Shetland It is ironic that all the leading Brexiteers are now in cabinet, given that it has been said that Theresa May had been trying to get more flexibility by having the recent election. It is also unseemly that Michael Gove, the man who promised us we would all be better off the day after Brexit, is now in Cabinet.

It is also hardly reputable for the Tories to be doing deals with Northern Irish MPS who are mired in a scandal causing the collapse of power sharing. If our Scottish Tory contingent fails to have influence on this motley crew then a poor Brexit deal and disillusionment may well fuel a Scots vote for independence in a few years time. The fact the issue is still a live one is down to the weakening of the UK’S democratic sensibilities and the continuing incompetence of Tory administrations.

It is fairly clear that the EU was not going to give the Westminster negotiators a good deal because it could have started a flood of other countries leaving. Now with a “majority” of -8 the Tory team don’t exactly have a strong mandate to negotiate.

There is also the idea that Britain is a world power but while that was possibly just the case before joining the EU, the world has moved on. India and China, the South American States and the Pacific Rim are now powerful trading blocs and without the trading power of the EU these are not easy markets to trade with.

Already it looks like the euro trading markets might move from London to stay within the EU. It is unlikely that the foreign-owned, Englandbased car industry would stay if tariffs make their production uneconomic. Without the links to the EU, the pound is weakened and with the uncertain political situation in the USA and its “USA First” there are no other partners.

At the moment another independence referendum is unwinnable. The SNP government should get on with proving they can run Scotland successfully and show that an independent Scotland would be more successful if leaving the EU destroys the British economy. Those supporters of independence who want to leave the EU need to be shown that while the EU is not perfect it would be better than trying to go it alone with an economically disadvantaged England and Wales as an example.

Tory Ruth Davidson MSP, as a remainer, might get her wish to be First Minister but it would be of an independent Scotland within the EU. BRUCE D SKIVINGTON Pairc a Ghliob

Strath Gairloch, Wester Ross