WHILE, like Iain A D Mann, I too was delighted that some MPs voted with their conscience rather than with the whip (Letters, December 15), I’m rather fond of tradition (albeit viewed from a distance of 400 miles). I like the tradition of referring to “My honourable friend the member for Biggleswick” rather than Joe Bloggs, and the insistence that to call Mr Bloggs a liar – even if he be guilty of terminological inexactitude – is unparliamentary.

I don’t mind the MPs parading through lobbies rather than pressing an electronic gadget to vote; at least they get to stretch their legs. I quite like Mr Speaker to announce, “The ayes to the right … the nays to the left … the ayes have it! Unlock!” If I were a sitting member I might even be tempted to take a snort of snuff apparently provided at the entrance to the Chamber, in a wooden box with a silver lid, made from the old chamber door the Luftwaffe managed to blow to bits in 1941.

But what they really need to dump are the whips. What is a whip if he is not a bully? The last Chief Whip kept a pet tarantula on his desk. It’s the sort of thing a Bond villain might easily have gone in for. “Ah! Mr Bond … ”, stroking one of the eight legs, “An unexpected pleasure …” It’s that sense of the steel fist inside the velvet glove.

Every vote is a conscience vote. This is when politicians lose the trust of the public, when they don’t listen to their conscience but instead obey a diktat from the Whip’s Office just because it has been underlined three times. Then some big hitter comes on camera to defend the indefensible and give expression to some specimen of cognitive dissonance or, more colloquially, b*******. Whipped debates, if not defied, are show debates. Then all you have left is flummery in the surround of ornate architecture, ancient modes of polite address, the tinkling cymbal of the division bell and snuff. Dr Hamish Maclaren, 1 Grays Loan, Thornhill, Stirling.

IAIN AD Mann’s latest thoughts warrans a response. I’m afraid that attitudes like those expressed hugely contribute to the fall in manners and standards we see and hear about all too often. This manifests itself in littering, lack of manners, the philosophy of me, me, me, an increase in unsociable behaviour, I-want-it-now syndrome and many more examples of how society finds itself in the state it currently inhabits.

The traditions of our Parliament are one of the few remaining that have not yet succumbed to the modernisms that eat away at our culture and standards that are so often lacking today. So the voting can take 20 minutes. Are we inconvenienced by this? No.

MPs and ministers are referred to as the Right Honourable and, whilst I agree that most of them do not live up to that description in their personal lives, it is a centuries-old tradition that shows respect for the office.

I have had my rant and I am going to lie down in a darkened room for a while. Merry Christmas.

James Martin, 43 Thomson Drive, Bearsden.

IAIN A D Mann expresses delight that a handful of Tory MPs had the courage to defy their whips. These MPs are not courageous; they are hypocritical. They claim to be defending parliamentary supremacy; for many years EU laws have been imposed upon us with no parliamentary scrutiny whatsoever.

They should be acting in accordance with the democratic wishes of the voters who, I hope, will remember this at the next General Election.

Do they not realise that they are hastening the arrival of a Jeremy Corbyn government?

David Miller, 80 Prestonfield, Milngavie.

WHY all the furore about MP Douglas Ross’s footballing interests ? ( “MP’s £2,000 match fee”, The Herald, December 15. ) The Moray MP correctly declared earnings from his part-time SFA duties. Admittedly, he also alluded to his parliamentary duties as being part-time. Doubtless this was a pragmatic view of his Westminster stay being of a limited duration . At least Douglas Ross has been open and honest, unlike many of his Parliamentary peers who only own up when they are found out.

Allan C Steele, 22 Forres Avenue, Giffnock.

I FEAR I must disagree with Iain A D Mann and his attempts to shake-up parliamentary procedures.

Where would we be without the traditions which he seeks to remove: the centuries’ old voting system in the Commons; and the courtesy of “the honourable member” address?

The Mother of Parliaments is renowned for what appear as eccentricities outwith the institution; but we are so fortunate to embrace such a unique system. Why dispense with our sense of living parliamentary history? It helps to make our parliamentary process everything it is.

Brian D Henderson, 44 Dundrennan Road, Battlefield, Glasgow.

THERESA May, when cornered, always resorts to phrases to cover up inadequacies or inconsistencies. She claims she is on course to deliver Brexit and she is “still in control” after her “defeat” in the Commons.

The retort is a sign of resigned desperation. But it begs the question, namely, what type of Brexit post exit will it be and who has the final say?

At the summit in Brussels on December 14, after aiming for discussions in trade to begin early in the New Year, she gave in or accepted without a whimper, as the UK has had to do after the vote to leave, the EU timetable that the transition phase discussions will begin in March 2018.

It seems that yet again the UK representative meekly proposes but the EU disposes. It will be always thus. Mrs May, in fact any UK prime minister, would be in this scenario, a mere onlooker who would just “keep smiling”.

Westminster and the Brenglish state representatives and fellow Unionist satraps north of the Tweed are learning that Brengland is a “minor entity” and delusions of entitlement to get its own way are being blown away. Brexit means Brexit “everywhere”, said Michel Barnier. It has already started. The EU has agreed to align its armed forces after Brexit. The UK can be part, but subject to negotiation and the required payment.

A painful, but long overdue corrective has begun to bring home to the UK the reality of the relative shift in position and status.

John Edgar, 4 Merrygreen Place, Stewarton.