ALMOST a fortnight after Brexit, the dust is settling. The Conservative Party will speedily place the keys of No 10 in a safe pair of hands, Theresa May’s: no blue-blooded baggage, none of Margaret Thatcher’s radicalism. Hers is a much-admired iron fist in a velvet glove (probably from Harrods by Dent or William Sharp). She will seek to pacify the body politic and to calm and unify the country. Someone needs to, for Labour is in the process of destroying itself both as a party and, more worryingly, as Her Majesty’s Most Loyal Opposition.

While markets have recovered their equilibrium, the impact of Brexit is being felt much more deeply and gravely within the EU itself than here in the UK. And this is how I suspect things will go. Jean-Claude Juncker must watch his arrogant streak. It was rude and rash of him to convene a cabal of the EU’s six senior members, excluding not only David Cameron (petty rudeness) but also the minnow states (rashly, as he sees them).

The European Project is overripe. The Dutch, by referendum, recently rejected a closer, pre-membership rapprochement with - of all countries - troubled Ukraine; they were wise to do so, rejecting further mad enlargement of their over-subscribed club and the concomitant provocation of Russia. It’s ironic that supporters of the EU claim it has for decades prevented war in Europe when Brussels is engaging in such greedy, idiotic brinkmanship.

All it may take to unravel the EU is a plebiscite like ours, whether demanded in Denmark or Sweden or again in the Netherlands. The European Union, obsessed about global capital and unfettered markets, has ignored the disaffection of ordinary people; and the people now threaten to vote for the decoupling of their nation states from the control of Brussels, its Central Bank, its unworkable currency union and its law courts. After a sentimental (and pointless) appeal in their parliament Scot Alyn Smith may have got a standing ovation from fellow MEPs, but Spain’s premier Mariano Rajoy and President Hollande of France swiftly put the kibosh on any fantasies about separate negotiations with Scotland. The EU is not about friendship, but business.

Thus it would do us all a favour if Nicola Sturgeon would stop flying around Europe as if she were the leader of a nation state; it makes her and us seem naive. Better she get on with doing a job for Scotland for the next three – or five or 10– years it will take to redraw the fiscal map of Europe. Does she seriously think she’ll persuade hard-headed Scots to vote themselves out of an unshackled United Kingdom any time soon in order to wait in the queue (behind Albania, Montenegro and Turkey) for entry to a deeply problematic EU? Europe’s many present crises, and those to come, will keep the UK united.

Martin Ketterer,

Tavistock Drive,

Glasgow.

DAVID Torrance is right to say the SNP will need to move quickly if it is to fully exploit the current situation (“Window of opportunity for SNP could be a narrow one”, The Herald, July 4). Yet the view business will take of current uncertainty will depend on just what kind of deal the UK ultimately secures with the EU. Being outside the EU but with reasonable terms for access to the single market could be an outcome that is favoured by business and the people alike.

Allowing time for this to become clear would be the right course for a First Minister determined to get the best outcome for Scotland, and to ensure that if we do decide to have another independence referendum the alternatives are sufficiently evolved to give us an informed choice.

The EU referendum vote did not ask whether Scots would be prepared to abandon their place in the UK in order to attempt to retain membership of the EU. The terms of that membership or indeed whether it would actually happen cannot be guaranteed in advance. Is Nicola Sturgeon so determined to pursue her primary ambition in the current political turmoil that she is willing to risk an outcome that surely the vast majority of Scots would consider the worst possible result, namely a Scotland out of the UK and the EU?

Before we all join hands and jump with the First Minister, we should know if that is a possible outcome.

Keith Howell,

White Moss, West Linton, Peeblesshire.

THE Centre for Policy Studies' assessment of an independent Scotland is surely a sobering thought in the current climate of uncertainty and instability (“Scotland ‘could be a Greece without the sun’”, The Herald, July 2). There is no guarantee of the eventual outcome if Scotland broke away from the rest of the UK without an EU lifeline but does it make economic sense for Scotland to cut itself off from a market to which two-thirds of Scottish exports are sent?

Would Nicola Sturgeon not be better to wait until the Brexit dust has settled before taking Scotland on a journey into the unknown and perhaps the abyss?

Bob MacDougall,

Oxhill, Kippen, Stirlingshire.

THE comments by the European Commission trade commissioner, Cecilia Malmström, that the UK will not be able to start talks on a new trade arrangement with the EU until other aspects of its exit have been settled (“EU chief sounds a warning on single market”, The Herald, July 1) should act as a wake-up call to us here in Scotland.

Between Brexit and the signing of any new trade deal, business between the UK and EU would be conducted under World Trade Organisation rules, damaging businesses and economies within the UK.

In the worst case scenario it could take up to a decade for the UK to negotiate a new specific trade deal with the EU. Scotland has a higher reliance on trade as a contributor to our economic output than the rest of the UK, with just under half our international exports destined for the EU, and we will therefore see our economy hard hit.

We however have a tremendous opportunity to take advantage of those companies who would potentially look to relocate from the rest of the UK to an independent Scotland as providing a gateway to the EU’s single market. Edinburgh indeed has the potential to take the UK’s finance crown from London as financial companies look to relocate, with the projected loss of 50,000 jobs to the City.

We have a tremendous opportunity to deliver huge economic benefits for our nation. This requires us to take control of our own affairs within the EU as full members. The rest of the UK’s loss could prove to be Scotland’s gain.

Alex Orr,

Flat 2, 77 Leamington Terrace, Edinburgh.

HENRY David Thoreau opens his pamphlet on civil disobedience with the phrase "that government is best which governs least". Unfortunately, the past few days have demonstrated how wrong that motto can be.

The impact of the electorate's ill-informed decision are just starting to be felt and it seems inevitable there is worse to come. Following a referendum where politicians employed obfuscation, untruths and bluster, many of them are now more concerned with advancing their personal interests rather than attending to the country's needs.

This abdication of responsibility must not be allowed to prevail. Pathetic mutterings about "accepting the voters' decision" will not do. Not when that outcome was based upon misinformation.

We must each now do what we can to ensure this miscarriage of democracy is corrected. It is clear that our elected representatives in London lack the will to do so, unless we the people lead them towards that conclusion.

Bob Scott,

Creitendam Lodge, Balmaha Road, Drymen.