ALAN Fitzpatrick (Letters, February 15) makes the fundamental mistake of thinking that because the European Union does not want a no-deal that it will not allow the UK to leave without a deal in place. The main impact of a no-deal Brexit (both positive and negative) will fall upon the United Kingdom, whereas the effect on the EU will be marginal and will have to be dealt with as a fait accompli.

The main problem with a no-deal Brexit is that apart from seeing a large fleet of lorries assembled in an airfield in Kent we have no idea as to how a no-deal Brexit will impact on the UK. We are assured that we will simply revert to the position that applied in 1973 prior to joining the EU and that it will be a simple matter of implementing World Trade Organisation rules.

As far as the European Union is concerned it will be relatively simple to deal with a no-deal Brexit since the United Kingdom will be added to the list of countries not in the union and trade terms that currently apply to non-member countries will then apply to the UK. In the case of the UK we presumably will want to reap the benefit of being able to trade with the entire world (including the EU) without the restrictions currently imposed by the EU. I have still to hear details of the arrangements that will be put in place in order to comply with World Trade Organisation rules and secure the benefits that Dennis Forbes Gratton (Letters, February 15) claims will boost the Scotch whisky sales.

Sandy Gemmill,

40 Warriston Gardens, Edinburgh.

"NO deal is better than a bad deal", Theresa May told us at the start. That was on June 23, 2016, almost three years ago. What has been done in all that time to prepare for leaving without a deal? She has never told us. It should have been straightforward to begin then to prepare for that event given the acknowledged determination of the EU to punish us for leaving, expressed the world over, even in the papers produced by Michel Barnier & Co, as if it were proper conduct and only changed when complained of. Of course, they intended to punish us for leaving to discourage other EU countries from following us. Time and again the hysterical Remainers have grabbed the floor to terrify everyone into some kind of deal, even a bad one. Yet a no deal Brexit was the strongest card in our hand. The one that might have ensured a deal that made sense.

Instead, the deal she has been forced to accept and they now refuse to alter is completely unworkable, ties us hand and foot and leaves us far worse off than we were before we decided to leave. That was not what we voted to leave for.

Most of the decisions have yet to be settled. Disputes are to be resolved by the EU court as if its impartiality is a given. Nonsense! No court on the planet is ever wholly impartial and in this case, the EU will give us a few crumbs to suggest fairness while keeping the plums for themselves. Emmanuel Macron has already refused to sign unless Frenchmen are allowed to continue to fish our waters. The Spanish want Gibraltar and won't sign unless they get it. They have said this and they have a veto over the deal along with every one of the others, whose price may yet be even worse. This has been swept under the carpet, like the redactions in the "summary" of legal advice the government wanted hidden and only released the full document when forced to do so in December 2018, bringing about the Government being held in contempt – the first time in 40 years. Morally, that was a disgrace. Mrs May has led the worst government in forty years! And it continues, day after day, so that we cannot recognise our Parliament as anything but a shambles. Her Government has failed and is heading for the wire, hoping that enough frightened MPs will allow her rotten deal to be voted for.

She set out to lead the country to leave the EU. She was resolute, polite and that was not good enough. The men in the EU played with her like cats with a mouse. All she can hope for is to be known as the worst Prime Minister in history: the one who set out to free us of the EU and left us worse off than we had ever been. There is only one thing to do: leave with no deal. Then and only then can we secure our freedom to make deals the world over, control our borders, our fisheries and colonies like Gibraltar, that rightly view themselves as British. We need to show our courage; brace ourselves to be at our best again. No deal is no disaster but an opportunity to control our own destiny.

William Scott,

23 Argyle Place, Rothesay.

ON October 14, 1971, Enoch Powell pleaded with the delegates to the Tory Party Conference in Brighton to reject entry to what was to become the European Union, saying: "I do not believe that this nation, which has maintained and defended its independence for a thousand years, will now submit to see it merged or lost. Nor did I become a member of sovereign parliament in order to consent to that sovereignty being abated or transferred."

He, unfortunately, was a voice crying in the wilderness.

However, the portents of the demise of the EU are increasing daily across the "Community". In a few years there will be nothing to leave. Better we leave now than go down with the wreckage of this dreadful experiment.

George Murray, 113 Dundonald Road, Troon.

POST-1945 Germany set about a process called “Bewältigung der Vergangenheit", overcoming its history, coming to terms with its past – honestly and openly. The latest salvos against Churchill in Scotland and in England are exactly that. The Brexit issue has forced many to look at the assumptions, myths and claims about the UK and its past. The recalling of the “Dunkirk spirit” and other glib half-truths are bringing this reassessment of the past into focus and discussion. The origin-myths of the UK are being subjected to critical comment.

As the European Continent gazes in wonder at the antics in the English Commons and its historical procedures carried over into the UK post-1707, it is time for an honest reappraisal of “our God-who-made-thee-mighty-past”.

John Edgar,

1a Langmuir Quadrant, Kilmaurs.