Brexit negotiations ‘success’ sees Britain outmanoeuvred once again by Europe

Why is it when a Prime Minister returns from Europe they proclaim success (Chamberlain, Cameron and now May), yet it is clear that they have been completely trounced by our European colleagues?

The rather vague Brexit document is not a success for the hardliners who wanted no EU interference since many EU functions will continue.

It is not a success for those that see the benefit of staying in the EU, since it appears we are still withdrawing from the nuclear partnership Euratom and there is no mention of programmes such as Erasmus or what is happening about the European Common Aviation Area, where if there is no agreement there will be no flights by British carriers.

It also has an interesting point in paragraph 48 where it discusses “regulatory barriers” rather than the original (unacceptable to the DUP) “regulatory alignment”.

It now accepts that any changes in regulations between Northern Ireland and Westminster requires the agreement of both.

In the event of a future majority of Republicans in the Northern Ireland Assembly it provides a path to harden the border in the Irish Sea and smooth the path to joining the Republic of Ireland. BRUCE D SKIVINGTON

Strath, Gairloch Nicola Sturgeon’s attempt to link the post-brexit Irish border issue to the case for Scottish independence makes clear that we are only in a phoney pause in her party’s unrelenting drive to tear the UK apart (“Sturgeon says Ireland deal means no ‘hard border’ after indy Yes vote”, 9 December).

While the UK government and those of the other 27 EU countries recognise the absolute necessity of finding a suitable way forward in relation to the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic, the First Minister can only see another chance to promote that which she considers “transcends” all else, namely separating Scotland from the rest of the UK.

What she conveniently ignores, of course, is that the Eu-wide reaction to recent events in Catalonia have made absolutely clear that a Scotland breaking away on its own will not find a ready route back into an EU whose members do not want to provide any encouragement to their own separatist movements.

No matter what type of border an independent Scotland might have with the rest of the UK and indeed the EU, no longer being a member of either union, and so losing the financial safety net of the sharing of resources across the UK, as well as the substantial benefits for Scotland under EU funding, would leave us with a weakened economy struggling to make sense of deeply imbalanced public finances.

KEITH HOWELL West Linton, Peeblesshire Hours after Friday’s Brexit announcement, Nicola Sturgeon tweeted “.... any special arrangements for NI must be available to other UK nations... a UK government that is able to say that come what may, it will avoid hard borders with Ireland/ni after Brexit can never again tell Scotland that independence would mean a hard border between Scotland and RUK”.

She avoided the other precedent, the “Divorce Bill”. The agreed amount of £39bn is tiny (£1,400 for each of the UK’S 27 million households) compared to the amount Scotland would pay to leave the UK.

The UK’S national debt is currently £1,6000bn. Our “divorce” share would be around £150bn, which is £68,000 for each of Scotland’s 2.2 million households.

Her problem is EU negotiations are grinding forward to a deal that even she will be unable to spin well enough to convince Scots that she should get her last throw of the dice for a referendum. Especially if the full costs of “Scexit” come out. ALLAN SUTHERLAND Willow Row, Stonehaven