Keeping it civil

One of the hidden consequences of the vote to leave the EU is, we are told by the government, a requirement for tens of thousands more civil servants in all departments of national government.

Added to that, with more powers coming to Scotland we will also require, most likely, thousands more civil servants. All these new civil servants will require salaries, pensions, office accommodation and support services.

So the likelihood is that rather than having millions more to spend on the NHS, social care and education, we are going to have to spend countless millions on all these extra government employees.

We all need civil servants, but civil servants don’t create wealth for the nation.

Prime minister Theresa May was very cagey yesterday when asked if there would be a Brexit Bonus for British citizens. We can all understand why.

WILLIE ROBERTSON

South Street, Milnathort, Kinross

The government seems to respond constantly to the Brexiteer pressure groups, but tends to think that Remainers as a pressure group will gradually disappear. But in the last election it was Remainers who made the Labour party look electable.

While the new Labour leader in Scotland looks promising, his counterparts at Westminster were, and are, gaff-prone. But the threat of a Labour victory remains a counterweight to irresponsible Brexiteer utterances.

That may be a godsend. The EU has to trust our government, if they are to believe that hard border issues can

be resolved. The government hopes to have no hard borders anywhere, post Brexit.

Yet no sooner do we agree that we will keep our regulations in harmony with Europe than one or other influential Brexiteer tells the public not to worry, that once we are out we can break that promise. So there must be tough negotiations.

If the EU did not insist that

the transition period be kept short, our government would think it has got the upper hand anddemandspecialtreatment for our fishermen and service industries, and the right to change regulations. While the predicted exodus of banking jobs has receded for the time being, the short transition will keep industrialists on edge. We may see investment become sluggish. The threats

made by the car industry may become more voluble.

The government needs to know that some people care too much to blindly accept the old SNP slogan (much loved by Brexiteers) “Say No to Project Fear”.

ANDREW VASS

Corbiehill Place, Edinburgh

The separatist prime minister of the UK talks of the strength of the strong UK union of four countries but seems to have somehow missed the bigger strength of 28 countries in the EU union.

The strong union of the UK’S four countries is, of course, an illusion. With one part of it (England) six times the size of the other three put together, the only strength in the UK is England’s, as all decisions in the UK are determined by England’s needs.

DAVID MCEWAN HILL

Tom Nan Ragh

Dalinlongart Sandbank, Argyll