May she change

What a wretched anniversary Theresa May had on Tuesday, a year since she was anointed Tory leader and prime minister – a year of disaster for the nation, her party and herself.

The elephant in the room is Brexit, where her insistence on leaving the single market, Customs Union and European Court of Justice oversight has wrecked all hope of compromise. Somehow she must find the nerve to face down her Europhobic backwoodsmen, admit there is no deal available better than staying inside the EU and ask the nation to think again. (REV DR) JOHN CAMERON

Howard Place, St Andrews Ayesha Hazarika (Perspective, 12 July) points out that relaunches, in this case by Theresa May, are usually a sign of weakness; whether this is historically correct or not, is not clear, but there seems no doubt that Mrs May is weakened. What is perhaps puzzling is that in the same edition of the newspaper we have news of a relaunch by Nicola Sturgeon in the autumn; presumably Ayesha will think the same of the First Minister? WILLIAM BALLANTINE

Dean Road Bo’ness, West Lothian At last we have a politician brave enough to stand up for the people of Britain and voice his views of the EU. Boris Johnsonhas told the EU to “go away’’ if they expect Britain to hand over £85 billion for our divorce bill for leaving the EU. This is presumably to fund bureaucrats’ salaries – the average in the EU is €72,000 and a former commissioner of the EU with five years’ service has a pension of €25,000.

We should be telling the EU that our terms are: access to the single market and control of our borders, and we do not pay a penny – including our £15 billion annual sub – until we get what we want,

The EU mandarins will be crying in their chardonnay.

JAMES MACINTYRE Clarendon Road, Linlithgow