IT was deeply depressing to read your centre page articles this morning (January 17), although all of them were very much correct. Your editorial comment (“The grim reality of leaving Europe)”, Iain Macwhirter’s column (“Scraps on the table after madness of an EU exit”), and Professor Phillips O’Brien’s Agenda report (“Expect Trump to be ruthless in any post-Brexit deal trade deal with the UK”) together painted a very bleak picture of the United Kingdom’s economic and political future over the next few decades. It was equally depressing to listen to the Prime Minister’s lunchtime speech, full of meaningless and misleading platitudes.

Prime Minister Theresa May has clearly already abandoned any hope of achieving anything like a satisfactory negotiation with the European Union. She knows that she has virtually no hope of getting even limited membership of the EU single market, unless she abandons the majority wish of the British people to close our borders to immigrants from other European nations. So to avoid appearing to lose the negotiations, she is not even going to try to win some limited concessions in those areas. Whatever pathetic settlement she achieves can then be presented as some sort of success, but the British people will not be so easily convinced, especially when they begin to feel the effect of increased prices for all the many products coming from Europe.

And to think all this started simply because David Cameron was trying to appease his large rebellious group of anti-European MPs. He unwisely committed himself in advance to giving the British people a referendum after he had concluded his negotiations with the other 27 states, but came back with virtually nothing of any substance. It never even occurred to him that he could lose the referendum vote, and his Government had made no plans for such an outcome. As a result the 17 million who, for various reasons, wanted out of Europe, have condemned the 16 million who voted to remain to at least two decades of economic turbulence and decline.

Although I won’t see it myself, I feel heartfelt sorrow for those next generations who will suffer the inevitable consequences of this madness, inflicted upon us by rash political actions and misguided personal choices. I predict that even more of our young people than previously will decide to leave this struggling and insular “little England”, and seek instead to pursue their careers in the more thriving and forward-looking economies of the Commonwealth and beyond. Scotland, with its declining population and impotent status within the UK, will once again suffer most from the folly of our larger neighbour in this benighted Union.

Iain AD Mann,

7 Kelvin Court, Glasgow.

BEING out of the single market and the customs union, with inevitable restrictions on the emigration on which our economy and society so depends will be more than a "slap in the face to working class Brexit voters" described by Iain Macwhirter. It could well be very bad news indeed for them as suggested as a real possibility by your leader writer.

The idea of an independent Scotland is becoming more attractive to me, a No voter in 2014. However, I do not see how a Scotland outwith both the EU and the UK could be anything other than an even bigger economic and social basket case than the UK could well become.

If your readers think I am being unduly pessimistic, I suggest they bring to mind "Michael Gove, Liam Fox, Iain Duncan Smith and Jacob Rees-Mogg" – as ruthless a bunch of plutocrats imaginable prepared to take the risk of sacrificing on the altar of their obsessive euroscepticism the interests of the aforementioned voters, those-just-managing, our children, those already on the margins of society and any of us likely to need the services of the NHS in the next decade.

John Milne,

9 Ardgowan Drive, Uddingston.

WELL, there we have it. It is clear from the PM's speech that the worst possible scenario – a hard Brexit – is about to descend on us all. No-one should be surprised that the UK Government has no interest in listening to Scotland. We knew this from the referendum campaign and the aftermath, of course, but to many who wished to stay part of a United Kingdom it must be unpalatable to realise that the No campaign was based on flawed arguments, desperate posturing and outright lies. But now is not the time to shout at those who voted No. Rather, we must do all we can to discuss rationally the implications of exactly what this monumental disaster means to all of us.

One thing is clear – the inclusivity of the first Scottish referendum must continue apace. The Independence Convention at the weekend proved there is more than an appetite for a second referendum. There is a positive hunger. Those who voted No the first time around must face up to some hard truths. We were never an equal part of a Union. We were never going to be listened to and there was never any chance that the platitudes of “don't leave us, we love you” were anything other than empty cries of the desperate. That so many swallowed this palpable nonsense was incredibly sad but surely this time around those who voted No to independence will be taking a long, hard rational look at the implications of the catastrophe that is unfolding.

Graeme Finnie,

Balgillo, Albert Street, Blairgowrie.

NON, Je ne regrette rien would appear to be Theresa May's anthem as with not a hint of hand-wringing she prepares for a hard Brexit from the European Union. Ever since the newly created Prime Minister made her "Brexit means Brexit" speech it has become increasingly clear that Mrs May, who lay low during the EU referendum campaign, and was dubbed "Submarine May" by David Cameron was at heart a Brexiteer, and a hard Brexiteer at that.

Your editorial encapsulates the dangerous direction in which we are being led by an unelected Prime Minister, however with regard to your front page sub-heading, "SNP snubbed as Prime Minister rules out EU deal on trade or free movement", I would point out that the snub is not merely to the SNP but to Scotland, which voted strongly to remain within the EU. Mrs May suggests "taking the opportunity of this great moment of national change to step back and ask ourselves what kind of country we want to be?" Good idea. Scotland is not Scotlandshire. Scotland voted to remain within the European Union and Scotland must not tamely allow itself to be dragged down and out of the EU by an overbearing Conservative Prime Minister and her hard faced Brexit policy. Crunch time is almost upon us. The question is, can Scotland stand up and be counted, travel in a better direction and forge our own future as a European nation? Emphatically, the answer is Yes.

Ruth Marr,

99 Grampian Road,

Stirling.

ANYONE who watched today’s lunchtime edition of the BBC news would surely now be under no illusion regarding Auntie’s view of the SNP.

Reporting on the Brexit speech by the PM, the Beeb sought reaction from Westminster’s second biggest party, then mysteriously leap-frogged to Westminster’s fourth biggest party. Not one SNP or Holyrood politician was interviewed.

The party that has arguably the most at stake, the party that has pledged to fight a second independence referendum over this very issue was shamefully and entirely ignored.

The BBC is the state broadcaster ;it will protect the state.

Eugene Cairns,

14 Boydfield Avenue, Prestwick.

SO Nicola Sturgeon is not happy with the prospect of a hard Brexit. This was a master stroke by Theresa May. Ms Sturgeon and her supporters may not like this, but they have no credible answers. Calling another independence referendum would be a disaster for the Scottish National Party as it has no solutions to the fundamental problems posed in the 2014 Scottish referendum and circumstances are much worse now. No wonder Ms Sturgeon is annoyed. Her bluff has well and truly been called.

Mrs May has offered a nationwide solution and Ms Sturgeon has no choice but to accept this, but her credibility on delivering promises to her faithful followers is no more. Game, set and match to Theresa May.

Dr Gerald Edwards,

Broom Road,

Glasgow.

WHEN I cast my vote to leave the EU I was well aware of the implications. I knew that taking control of our borders, and no longer being subject to European Court of Justice rulings meant that the UK could not be a member of the European single market but that we could negotiate access. I knew that in order to make trade deals outside the EU the UK would have to cease being a full member of the customs union. I knew that the £350 million slogan on the bus was not literal but just an example of how we could decide for ourselves what to spend the money on. Finally I was well aware that it would not be plain sailing.

What I didn't know was how a large number of those who voted Remain would take the anti-democratic path of attempting to reverse a democrat decision.

So can I ask all those remain politicians and media people to stop telling me what they believe I didn't vote for, stop running the UK's future down and start accepting the democratic process.

Paul Lewis,

99 Guardwell Crescent, Edinburgh.

DONALD R Buchanan (Letters, January 17) states that Scotland "voted overwhelmingly to stay in the EU". Not so; 62 per cent of the Scottish electorate who voted wanted to stay in the EU – that is just over 40 per cent, which is an overwhelming minority.

It is axiomatic that the First Minister and her political acolytes despise democracy when it fails to deliver what is desired.

William Durward,

20 South Erskine Park, Bearsden.