ON Friday Boris Johnson gave a commitment that in a post-Brexit UK workers’ rights will “never be inferior” to those of the EU.

Can anyone, even those Scottish Conservative MPs, not to mention the Labour MPs from furth of Scotland, who follow him so unquestioningly, believe him when he thought it appropriate to remove the legally-binding commitment to precisely that principle from the previous divorce deal?

The trouble is Mr Johnson has been shown, time and time again, to be more than capable of being economical with the truth, although many have put that in much stronger terms.

An article in the Irish Times recently suggested that “there is something rotten in the state of UK politics. The ways in which that corruption is seeping into daily life are worrying.” In this context I ask myself, what does it say about the personal standards of the membership of the Conservative Party which made him Prime Minister?

Although there is a general perception that participation in party politics can bring out the worst in some people, surely it can be argued that the Prime Minister is in a class of his own.

I would like my country back with its acceptance of the need for a minimum degree of honesty in its governance. Brexit in whatever form it comes will for ever be tainted by the widespread use of dishonesty by which it will have been attained.

John Milne, Uddingston.

IAN McConnell's withering analysis of the situation around leaving the EU ("Anyone with first clue can see Boris Brexit deal is no reason for hope", Herald Business, October 19) is as accurate as usual. For all normal people, leaving the EU offers no benefit and many losses. So why, we may ask, does someone

with Mr Johnson's apparent intelligence and cunning, make such efforts to ensure the UK does leave?

The ostensible reason is to “honour the democratic will of the people”, but any rational rational being can see that the views of a deluded third of the electorate should not be allowed to inflict damage on the country as a whole. Given Mr Johnson's demonstrable contempt for Parliament, the law or common morality, his

claim to be being a supporter of democracy rings very hollow.

Much more plausible is that he has used the mess as a way to get himself to the top and to remain there, by enacting the will of his party's major backers. The tax-avoiding billionaires, employers who wish to exploit their workforce or to carry on polluting the environment with impunity, can all see that avoiding EU scrutiny is to their advantage, so they will back him by every means possible.

A more sinister motive may be given by history; in times of economic turmoil, the extreme right and extreme left have always benefited. Paradoxically, the worse conditions become for the majority of workers, the more likely they seem to be to support charismatic leaders from these extremes, who offer simplistic (but wrong) policies and use immigrants, benefit claimants or other groups as scapegoats for the mess. One suspects that Mr Johnson, and indeed Jeremy Corbyn, may have noticed this and be quite happy to ruin the lives of the many to bolster their power, so support damaging actions like leaving the EU.

Those of us who wish to live in a clean, humane society without gross disparities of wealth, under the protection of the law should be very worried.

Dr RM Morris, Ellon.

SNP MP Joanna Cherry is happy to keep dragging the courts into the political arena ("Judges to rule on legality of Johnson’s ‘childish tricks’", The Herald, October 21).

Yet with the complexities of the Brexit process, and the endless possibilities of how things might proceed, regularly introducing the courts into giving opinions where they would previously have preferred to remain silent, is a development that all should see as a retrograde step, no matter where we stand on the EU. The separation of powers is a critical feature of the checks and balances in our democracy, and those trying to use the law to circumvent political decision-making risk undermining the whole system. Yet of course for some that might be the intention.

Under cover of claims that they are seeking to uphold the law, there are some whose primary objective is to undermine the Government and seek to gain political advantage in a way which for the SNP at least, ultimately seeks to bring down the whole house of cards. Whilst it is unsurprising that Scottish nationalists will care nothing for the damage they do to the United Kingdom as a whole, or indeed Scotland in particular, just as long as their life-long obsession with breaking up our country is furthered in the process, the courts must surely feel in danger of being misused in all of this. Some earlier decisions both north and south of the Border argued plainly and firmly for keeping the courts out of politics, but were subsequently overturned by higher authority. Those higher courts might come to rue the day they signalled support for those intent on a campaign of disruption.

Keith Howell, West Linton.

AS Brexit drags on and too many members of the public trot out a “just get it done”, sometimes with an exasperated “one way or another”, am I alone in wondering what happened to the “stickability” factor drummed into those of us growing up in the 1940s and 50s?

R Russell Smith, Kilbirnie.

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