Letters: The UK is now witnessing the death of democracy

A Tory minority Government was elected at the last General Election and decided to take over the Brexit project and to keep all other views and opinions out of the decision-making process. It set up "red lines"’ for the negotiations with the EU after discussions among the Tory leadership with nobody else allowed to be involved in any way.

It failed completely to convince even its own party members, and the 10 DUP MPs, to whom they had given bribes in order to get their support for their Brexit plans, although the people in Northern Ireland had voted to remain in the EU.

We know that more than 100 Tory MPs have no confidence in Theresa May as their leader, because they recently voted to get rid of her.

Mrs May refuses to resign after the greatest rejection on a major policy issue any Government has ever suffered and the Tories with their DUP associates voted to keep her in office, because they are afraid to face the electorate in a General Election. So once more a minority is preventing the majority from having a view on this important matter. Whatever this is, it is not democracy.

Andy Anderson,

36 Montgomerie Crescent, Saltcoats.

SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford seems to have experienced some sort of Damascene conversion. Back in 2014 the Scottish Government published a White Paper to demonstrate how leaving the UK would result in prosperity. By default it meant leaving the EU at the same time.

The other day, in a TV interview Mr Blackford said Brexit would cause unemployment. He stated very clearly that no ideology is worth the cost of unemployment. He didn't single out the ideology of Brexit. Instead he declared that no ideology was worth that price. I found this a startling proposition. In the Commons he also declared: "Let us be absolutely clear that there is no such thing as a good Brexit." The logic of each position undermines the quest for Scottish independence.

Nearly one in four jobs in Scotland is supported by demand for Scottish goods and services from the rest of the UK. There are many supporters of independence who recognise some jobs will be lost if it happens. There are some who would still seek it even if they knew for certain that their jobs would go. Regardless of your stance on independence such commitment is to be admired. However, this is not Mr Blackford's stated position. He declared unambiguously that no ideology is worth the cost of unemployment. Scottish independence from the UK is an ideology that risks one in four jobs in Scotland. If Brexit is halted, an additional risk would exist if Scotland left the UK – leaving the UK would mean leaving the EU at the same time. If there is no such thing as good Brexit, how can the inevitable consequence be good for Scotland? Irrefutably, Scotland would begin its new life on WTO terms. It would have an untested economy, an untested banking system and an untested currency or be handcuffed to another currency over which it had no control. If no ideology is worth unemployment (alone) why would anyone want to expose Scotland to all of this?

It might be that Mr Blackford is possessed by an exceptionalist mentality and cannot see the contradictions. Perhaps he's lying and understands fully that the ideology he espouses will lead to losses of jobs. Another likelihood is that he does have a genuine belief that no ideology is worth unemployment and as a consequence he will cease pursuit of Scottish independence.

Kenny Wilson,

21 Union Street, Greenock.

NICOLA Sturgeon's endless ingenuity in kicking the independence can along the road is amazing ("Sturgeon primes her troops for Indyref2", The Herald, January 18).

If only she and Alex Salmond had deployed these undoubted abilities to transforming Scotland's economy, healthcare, education and society instead of ramming through unwanted policies (or taking patently unworkable policies to ridiculous lengths and humiliating climbdowns), they could have made a genuine case for independence.

Instead, that lack of true confidence that dogs "wha's like us" Scottish nationalists fuelled a typically Scottish ill-starred "kick and rush" lunge to independence and a four-year drawn-out "thrawn" refusal to learn from their mistakes.

Brexit is the gift that keeps on coming for the SNP. Scotland's suspended animation will only stop when the opposition bring out policies to repair and advance Scotland and consign the SNP to the back benches in Holyrood 2021.

Allan Sutherland,

1 Willow Row, Stonehaven.

I AGREE wholeheartedly with Gerard McCulloch (Letters, January 17) regarding the ability to change one's mind – particularly since the 2016 referendum to leave the EU was a sop by David Cameron to stave off the threat of Conservative seats being lost to Ukip and not expecting the resulting outcome. I for one wasted my ballot paper in the aforementioned referendum as I felt I had insufficient information at the time to make an informed choice. I wonder how many did likewise?

However, I know which way I would vote now if given a second chance. Furthermore, I am reasonably sure in my assertion that many Leave voters had little idea what they were actually voting for, having been duped by a few carpetbaggers offering millions to the NHS.

Ian Craig,

101 Lethame Road, Strathaven.

THERESA May, for her own reasons, refuses to relinquish the option of a No Deal Brexit, despite the clearest evidence that it would plunge the nation into a state of economic, political and social chaos. Any prime minister who would knowingly and deliberately conspire to such an outcome would be guilty of nothing short of treason.

Allan Graham,

103 Achiltibuie, Ullapool.

I HAVE concluded that the only way to survive the friction, chaos and often nastiness of the Brexit debate is to have and to maintain a sense of humour.

May I offer: "An Englishman, a Scotsman and a Northern Irishman walk into a bar. The Englishman wanted to go, so they all had to".

David Miller,

80 Prestonfield, Milngavie.