Media’s duty

I was appalled to read Tory MP Andrea Leadsom saying that journalists who question issues around Brexit are “unpatriotic”. I think probably 99 per cent of UK citizens expect the media to question everything, on our behalf, and would feel let down if they didn’t. It’s fundamental to protecting our rights.

What is it about the Tories, and their backers? It is only a couple of months since the Daily Mail ran the headline “Crush the saboteurs”, talking about the 48 per cent of the population who voted Remain. And the same newspaper called the judges who tried last year’s Brexit case “Enemies of the people”. Disgracefully, then justice secretary Liz Truss failed to give open backing to the judges.

To try to define Tory policies as “patriotic”, and say they should slide through unquestioned, is desperate, and also frightening. We are entering the totalitarian world of Vladimir Putin, Robert Mugabe and Kim Jong-un. Do the Tories care nothing for our long history of fairness and democracy?

ANNE WIMBERLEY Belmont Road, Edinburgh

Now that Brexit talks are underway and the UK Government have played their first hand in the negotiations, it seems clear that the European Union want to play by their own rules. The omens do not look good for sensible, grownup discussions. It would seem from the off, the same bullying tactics are being employed and the same closed door policy, which David Cameron encountered when he asked for a lifeline to satisfy the growing numbers of Eurosceptics in the UK.

There are 3 million Europeans living in the UK and only 1m UK residents living in the whole of the rest of Europe. Given these figures, the offer put on the table by the UK negotiators seems to be entirely generous.

The current position adopted by the European Parliament is precisely why I and a majority of the electorate in the UK voted to leave.

JANE BALL Hendersyde, Kelso