Double standards

There seems to be a whiff of double standards in Theresa May wanting MPS to vote again on a proposition that they have already rejected twice on the grounds that they will eventually realise that it has to be accepted.

Is this the same Theresa May who does not want us in Scotland to have another vote on independence because the proposition was rejected once?

(DR) FRANCIS ROBERTS Duddingston Square West,

Edinburgh

It is ironic that the argument the Scottish National Party makes for “cancelling” Brexit is exactly the same argument for cancelling Indyref 2.

SNP MP Joanna Cherry, in particular, seems to be of the opinion that Brexit should be abandoned and the 2016 referendum was wrong because people did not have the correct information to make an informed choice.

Most of the predictions, by the SNP, about the state of a post-independence Scotland are precisely the same. It really is time to call off this ill-thought-out scheme. It was rejected in 2014 by a large majority. Enough is enough.

( DR) GERALD EDWARDS

Broom Road, Glasgow

After Ukip and its acolytes won the referendum, they collapsed into a disorganised rabble because they had no

programme to benefit the UK. In the three years since there’s been not a shred of evidence that Brexit would improve matters, the choice on offer being a little worse off or being a lot worse off.

During my long career as a parish minister I often watched in horror as parishioners started down the road to divorce. It took more courage than you would believe to visit them and say, “Marriage isn’t easy but divorce is a nightmare. I pray God give you the courage and the wisdom to hold on to one another.”

Of course, Brexit is “different” but it’s still a meaningless divorce with the same siren voices praising the same mythical green pastures. Pius IX hung the albatross of papal infallibility around the neck of the Catholic church. Would it be such a loss of face if we admitted we were wrong and stayed in the EU?

(REV DR) JOHN CAMERON

Howard Place, St Andrews

I am looking at an 1803 watercolour of John Bull “standing firm” on the coast of Kent showing, as the caption continues “...the right combination of resolution and contempt”.

A grander and more generous painting depicts Napoleon, telescope to his eye, standing on the opposite shore at Boulogne. He observes Great Britain and coins the term “a nation of shopkeepers”.

Since then many things on our island have refused to shift with the times. Meanwhile, Europe has moved on and proactively embraced a unity while our shopkeeping mentality remains as it was: little tinpot elites in disorganised units shouting and blowing their horns in all directions while still carrying the illusion of validity. Laughable.

Our more civilised and intelligent, more morally accountable and socially fluent Continental partners can only look on in a bewildered mix of fascination and horror at the car crash that is Great British diplomacy.

We must be exceedingly

wary of our divisive, ignorant and self-serving elites – they are still only wee shopkeepers. The tiresome and redundant British bulldog has become a danger to us all and needs to be put down right now. DOUGLAS HOGG Gordon, Berwickshire

Brexit paralysis has been caused by the undemocratic

nature of the UK parliament and the “my way or the highway” political culture it promotes.

Generations of MPS have been schooled for their entire career to never compromise on their policy programme to the differing views in another party. This culture is unique in the EU. Every other member state has a national parliafoot

ment constituted on the basis of proportional representation.

Negotiation and compromise are everyday events and are mandatory after every election, as no party achieves a majority on its own. The failure to have skills in this regard has prevented the Prime Minister from agreeing a way forward that the whole House of Commons can acccept.

The Conservatives have 6 per cent, or 40 more seats, than they deserve through voter share. Comparing the democratic credentials of the UK and Norway (the richest economy in Europe) shows the UK to be backward and slow to change. Norway gave women equal votes to men in 1913.

The UK refused to accept that women and men were equal until 1948. Proportional representation, which is the bedrock of fair elections throughout Europe, is resisted in the UK to this day. Add to this the appointed House of Lords, and the UK is an embarrassing undemocratic anachronism in a modern Europe.

The Scottish parliament, the Northern Ireland assembly and the Welsh assembly have adopted PR and benefit hugely from it. The skills to successfully negotiate are absent from the current Prime Minister and her political class – this will be the main reason for her Brexit downfall.

FRANCIS BUCHAN Drybrough Crescent, Edinburgh

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