IF there is another General Election, no one party can win it outright since the country now is politically fragmented more than at any time in its recent history. Consensus has now been replaced by contempt and an almost palpable hatred across the Despatch Box, something that began back in 2010 the first time David Cameron stood across from Ed Miliband, and has built up in the last nine years.

Furthermore, a new government, with a new leader (even one that is still Conservative-led) cannot solve the EU issues we have at present, without some backtracking.

Whichever party gets the most seats will have to sit down and talk with other parties to form a government of unity, so why don’t the Prime Minister and the leaders of the Opposition sit down together now and work collectively to find a way forward from this mess?

No-one knows what the Conservatives stand for, such is the division in their ranks. None of us can say with certainty that the Labour Party won’t disintegrate since half the MPs have no great love for their leader. The DUP is simply using the situation to further its own political agenda, and the SNP’s position is one of expediency, though at least the electorate knows that it wants to be out of the UK and inside the European Union. As for the Liberal Democrats, has anyone heard anything from them of late, other than from their leader on a very rare occasion – they used to be the beacon of Europe in the United Kingdom?

Such is the polarity of opinion, another General Election could be a disaster for the country since it is likely to unleash a level contemptuous rhetoric and hatred never before seen, and it will not solve the problem of Brexit unless one of the main parties stands as the party of Remain or Leave, and even then party loyalties would most assuredly kick in.

As for all those commentators and political pundits who think the PM should have instantly resigned, I have to wonder what they think that would achieve since Mrs. May has been the only constant throughout!

Francis Deigman,

12 Broomlands Way, Erskine.

I BELIEVE it was GB Shaw who opined that “those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything,” and it seems to me that the validity of this belief is currently being played out in the so-called Mother of Parliaments'. The hackneyed old saw regarding the question "How do I get to such-and-such a place" and the response, "Well, I wouldn't start from here" also springs to mind.

Still, the notion the Government continues to advance, ad nauseam, that "we had a people's vote in 2016 and the result of that is sacrosanct" is plainly ludicrous by any rational standard. If I purchase any item of modern, materialist, evanescent, life-enhancing accessory, be it car, house, sofa, insurance policy, microwave, dishwasher and the like, there is inevitably a period of time within which I may simply reconsider, change my mind and rescind the original agreement. On a matter of national, generational, life-changing importance, why does not the same rationale obtain? And that proposition is advanced notwithstanding the fact that to say, almost three years down the line from the original decision, nothing has changed is simply mind-blowingly risible in the first place.

In most other walks of professional life, the business partners responsible for the continued employment of someone with such a personality of stubborn, blind, intransigent arrogance would quickly act to have them removed. That, of course, begs the question, why has the Tory Party not dealt similarly with Theresa May. First, because there is no one in the Tory Party able or willing to step up to the challenge of leadership governance and secondly because blatant hanging on to power at all and any cost has become their over-arching raison d'etre.

Add to that a dithering, publicly unconvincing and unelectable Jeremy Corbyn, and in the crucible of civic, political welfare, you produce what we are currently experiencing; the orphan child of failed democracy and personal ego.

Government of the people for the people? As we say in these pairts,"Aye, right."

Gerard McCulloch,

Moffat Wynd, Saltcoats.

NICOLA Sturgeon is again agitating for a referendum, this time on UK membership of the EU. I wish a Westminster politician, or even a journalist, would ask Ms Sturgeon why she is now so exercised by Brexit when in 2013-14 she led the campaign to take Scotland out of the UK which meant also – as the EU Commission confirmed – taking Scotland out of the EU, without a deal.

I wish also that someone would ask her why her party dishonestly tells Scots that their choice is between remaining in the UK or being in the EU. No EU Commissioner has suggested that a separate Scotland would "inherit" UK EU membership, or that Scotland would be able to slip into EU membership without first going through the customary accession process. This would include having its own independent currency, a central bank and huge funds to underwrite a central bank. From where are these to come?

Jill Stephenson,

Glenlockhart Valley, Edinburgh.

THE House of Commons in meltdown, Scottish Tory MPs voting against their constituents’ wishes on Brexit, Scottish MPs shouted down at every opportunity and a Labour Party with no plans for a way out of a broken Parliament, yet showing levels of incompetence and inconsequence usually only shown by tits Scottish branch office.

Now if only there was a way Scotland could extricate itself from this Eton mess of idiocy, ineptitude and delusion. Oh wait. So when will the Scottish Government call a second independence referendum? Nobody voted No for this state of affairs. Independence is surely now the only option on the table for Scotland.

Graeme Finnie,

Balgillo, Albert Street, Blairgowrie.

MY long-dead father would often observe that in politics the Far Left and the Far Right eventually coalesce.

I thought of him when I watched the latest Brexit developments. Jeremy Corbyn has never hidden his disdain for the EU. Most of the right-wing Brexiter Tories wish the UK to leave the EU at any cost.

Even if for different reasons, the ideology in each case is more important to them than any economic paralysis or other damage inflicted on the people of this country.

Finally, may I say that although I disagree with her profoundly at times, Theresa May has conducted herself with grace and dignity throughout, in stark contrast to the baying hyenas and so-called leaders snapping at her heels.

Alexander McKay,

8/7 New Cut Rigg, Edinburgh.

Read more: Theresa May suffers historic defeat