Now the UK has seen the draft Brexit deal, a People’s Vote is the only way forward

The half-baked draft Brexit deal agreed by the Cabinet means that a Uk-wide referendum, with the option to remain in the EU, is now the only credible way forward.

While it was agreed to by the Cabinet, there is no chance of the deal passing through the Westminster Parliament given the deep divisions among the Tories, both from Remainers and Leavers, as well as opposition from the DUP.

With the deal the UK would be relegated to being a ruletaker from Brussels rather than a rule-maker in the EU, which would be vastly worse than the benefits Scotland has as an integral part of the EU.

For example, access to European markets would be dependent on granting access to European fishing fleets, so the promises made to the fishing industry would be rendered null and void. As David Davis, the former Brexit secretary and an ardent Leaver, pointed out before the most recent referendum, “If a democracy cannot change its mind, it ceases to be a democracy.”

There are few I know who voted for Brexit in the belief it would make them poorer and it is up to the public to give its view on whether the deal, and more importantly its implications, are what it wants.

The Scottish Parliament has led the way in backing a People’s Vote and now that we know the precise nature of the deal, it is up to the public to have its say.

ALEX ORR Marchmont Road, Edinburgh

A fair Brexit People’s Vote would have to offer three choices: Stay in the EU; the May deal; or Leave, with no deal.

Staying in would be our biggest humiliation since Suez, made worse because it wasn’t just the Cabinet to blame, but all who voted in 2016.

The May deal is the only coherent plan, tested in the heat of battle with EU negotiators, on the table.

It is also much nearer to the Common Market that 67per cent of us signed up for in the 1975 referendum.

No one has a clue what the settled will of Labour or the SNP is.

Those who complain we will still be subject to all sorts of trade rules had better get used to it because every country and econonic bloc that we are now free to have trade agreements with has environmental, safety, packaging and technical standards that our exporters will need to comply with, many of them designed to thwart competiton for their domestic producers.

Those demanding the same deal as Northern Ireland should buy an atlas and see for themselves that we don’t have a land border with the EU. ALLAN SUTHERLAND Willow Row, Stonehaven

The draft Brexit deal with no end perfectly illustrates Enoch Powell’s “Power devolved is power retained” as it is always power handed down by grace and favour, not of right.

The Gibraltar government got prior sight of the document but not the Scottish government and the seven Belgian parliaments will have more influence on the proposed deal than Holyrood.

Scotland is not mentioned in the 585-page document and as far back as December 2016 the Scottish Government put forward a detailed plan to keep Scotland in the Single Market even if the rest of the UK left. The UK Government dismissed this out of hand, but Northern Ireland is now being offered that kind of deal, which will put Scotland at a significant economic disadvantage, yet Scotland – which voted to remain by the largest majority in the UK – gets no deal.

It is time for a second referendum, not on Brexit but on independence as the only way out of this Tory mess.

MARY THOMAS Watson Crescent, Edinburgh

This is the first time in history that a government has spent two years trying to make us all worse off, for the sake of serving a 3.8 per cent vote swing on an issue that nobody understood.

If ever there was an illustration of the danger of democracy, this EU fiasco has been just that.

MALCOLM PARKIN Gamekeepers Road, Kinnesswood, Kinross Kenny Macaskill (Perspective, 15 November) repeats the old canard about the “Leave lies and duplicity” during the EU referendum (which, as historian Peter Hennessy pointed out elsewhere, is patronising). And he speaks of “Project Fear” by Cameron and Osborne during this referendum – what was Project Fear but duplicity and lies? WILLIAM BALLANTINE

Dean Road, Bo’ness, West Lothian

Dominic Raab’s resignation as Brexit Secretary reminds me of the old joke about the workman who threw himself from the top of a building site because he was utterly bored with having to eat the same sandwiches every day. His workmates sympathised, but his wife pointed out that he made his sandwiches himself.

GILL TURNER Derby Street, Edinburgh