IS Theresa May really in charge any more? Richard Harrington, Business Minister, has praised the chief of Airbus over his comments on the Brexit fiasco to date. It is an open secret that a cabal of ministers including the Chancellor are colluding to thwart a no deal ("May facing new Cabinet revolt over no-deal Brexit", The Herald, January 25).

The Tory Parliamentary party is divided into many factions and splinter groups, and no effective strategy is emerging after Mrs May’s historic defeat over her Withdrawal Agreement. Indeed, her reiteration of her red lines in the phantom Plan B makes one think that we are heading for paralysis.

As more than 200 companies are planning to flee to the country following P&O, Dyson and others and the misery on the High Street shows no sign of abating, we must remind ourselves that we are still in the EU.After leaving one can only shudder at the thought of what might follow.

Then Jacob Rees-Mogg implies that the Queen would even appear in person in the Commons to prorogue the proceedings ("Nerves start to jangle with just 64 days left until UK leaves the EU", the Herald, January 24). That would surely end the Windsor dynasty for good.The last monarch to enter the Commons like that was Charles I.

We are really witnessing a form of internal uproar in the Commons among its members.

A bunkered PM seems to be losing the plot. So, where will it end now? Resignation?

John Edgar,

1a Langmuir Quadrant, Kilmaurs.

IF, as some of your correspondents not unreasonably propose, a future referendum on constitutional change should require a 60/40 vote for a particular proposal to be carried, the wording of the question would in effect have to ask for approval to reject the status quo, whatever that was . Thus as regards Brexit, another referendum would have to start by recognising that the status quo is the fact that the UK has voted to leave the EU and consequently the referendum would have to require at least a 60/ 40 vote in favour of overturning that and remaining in the EU.

Equally, another referendum on Scottish independence would require a 60/40 vote in favour of overturning the status quo of Scotland’s membership of the UK.

Alan Fitzpatrick,

10 Solomon’s View, Dunlop.

IT is continually stated that the Scots voted overwhelmingly 62 per cent to 38 per cent to remain in the EU. I would have been astonished if it had been anything different as all political party leaders in Scotland voted to remain with the exception of an unknown and insignificant Ukip leader.

What I find astonishing is Brexit supporters not continually making this point.

The man who made Brexit was Nigel Farage, and if he had been Ukip's leader north of the Border and campaigning vigorously in Scotland, there would have been every chance Scotland would have voted to leave.

John Connor,

David Henderson Court, Dunfermline.

STRUAN Stevenson certainly ups the ante of the Conservative Government's Project Fear in his contribution to the Agenda column ("Call time on the policy of independence at all costs", The Herald, January 24). Mr Stevenson's apocalyptic economic scenario for an independent Scotland claims somewhat arbitrarily that "independence would be eight times more damaging than the worst-case Brexit". This is according to "official figures" provided for him by an unknown source, probably not Bute House.

Keeping in mind that official UK Government figures predicted in November 2018 that the UK economy could be up to 9.3 per cent smaller over 15 years after a no- deal Brexit, that leaves us with the prospect of an independent Scottish economy shrinking by around 74.4 per cent if Mr Stevenson's startling prediction was to come to fruition.

Mr Stevenson's unashamedly one-sided economic broadside appears to be the greatest work of fiction since Gulliver's Travels was published in 1726.

Owen Kelly,

8 Dunvegan Drive, Stirling.

HAROLD Wilson famously said that a week was a long time in politics. For the SNP, looking ahead, each day must seem like an eternity as its problems multiply almost exponentially with time and its Holy Grail seems to be disappearing into a Scotch mist.

Most of its problems have been self-inflicted. There has been a palpable lack of honesty and, dare I say, integrity. Egos have dominated. Far too much time and effort has been spent placating extremists. Once the iron discipline was relaxed, things began to fall to pieces.

I am sure the hard core will rally round the flag, as hard cores always do, but the first cracks have appeared and perhaps we are witnessing the beginning of the end.

Alexander McKay,

8/7 New Cut Rigg, Edinburgh.

JIM Lynch (Letters, January 25) contends “that the health service in Scotland is better than in any other part of the UK”. Let him produce evidence for this, for example with regard to cancer services. Perhaps he does no more than echo SNP propaganda.

Furthermore Scottish people have no interest in the relative performance of the NHS outwith Scotland, but do have an interest in the absolute performance of the NHS within Scotland. The folksy American saying “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it” doesn’t apply to NHS Scotland which is broke in many respects. Praising NHS Scotland and, by inference, its political masters and mistresses, does nothing to enhance performance.

William Durward,

20 South Erskine Park, Bearsden.

SCOTLAND’S housing market is under the spotlight with reports that demand is out-stripping supply. Housing is a basic need for all, especially good quality housing as it can have life-changing effects, especially health effects if it is a damp home. However, the picture is not all gloom.

Last year recorded the most council and housing association homes built in Scotland in any one year in more than a decade, 4,629. The bigger picture of private and public sector house building over the last three years has seen a year-on-year increase in excess of two per cent. The SNP’s record in administration at Holyrood since 2007 has achieved more than 70,000 affordable homes in its first 10 years in office, no mean feat and a figure the SNP is aiming to better with the promise of 35,000 homes for social rent to become available in this parliament.

This is much-needed social housing and leads me to the question: how many councils have bought back council homes which due to the right to buy had fallen into the private sector?

Catriona C Clark,

52 Hawthorn Drive, Banknock, Falkirk.

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