THERESA May is set for yet another trip to Brussels this week, in the pretence that she can get changes made to the backstop. How much more embarrassment can this country endure in its relationship with Europe? David Cameron thought he could go to Brussels and come back with some goodies that would help swing the referendum his way. All he came back with was a few crumbs, which at least is more than Mrs May is bringing back.

We should have hired Donald Trump to negotiate with Europe on our behalf. He would undoubtedly have walked out on the negotiations long before now, but we would at least have been left with some self-respect.

The only sensible negotiating position with Europe now is to state unequivocally that negotiations are at an end and that we are leaving under a no-deal scenario. Only by sticking to this position and being willing to carry it through will Europe conceivably be forced back to the negotiating table.

Unfortunately, this is a forlorn hope, with only the ERG subset of the Conservative Party truly believing in this course of action.

Europe of course knows this, and hence thinks that there is a fair chance that Mrs May's dodgy deal or some delay/ cancellation of Brexit will be the final result. In other words, a win-win scenario for them.

Thomas Masson,

15 Langton Place, Newton Mearns.

FIDELMA Cook has said in the most forceful way everything about Brexit and the so-called politicians who "serve" us... sorry, serve themselves ("I'm consumed by rage and a wish to last out at the self-satisfied smuggeries", Herald Magazine, February 16).

Can you use your powers to somehow distribute Fidelma's column to every MP and MSP who cares about Britain rather than their party? The point that you should make is that if someone like Ms Cook can reach a point of hatred towards these shameful people, then how much hatred is there throughout the population? And if there is, then maybe the threats of Army involvement and a form of martial law is not so much Project Fear as in fact reality. How in God's name did we get here and why?

It seems to me that the downright greed of the financial class and many in the industrial class do not give a damn about the ordinary punters, be they workers, retirees or those who used to be in the apprentice class.

What can we do about it? Wait for the next General Election? I am not sure that even if a referendum is called that it will do any good, unless a minimum turnout is set and a minimum majority is also set.

It is often said in your Letters Pages and sometimes in your leading articles and by your columnists that if ordinary people do nothing, then the bully class will walk over us. This time my fear is that plans are afoot to do just that, with force if necessary, and to keep "us" in our place. So how and what can ordinary folk do to avoid this break-up of our society?

Can better minds than mine please do something – anything – before it is too late?

Ian Gray,

Low Cottage, Croftamie.

WILLIAM Scott (Letters, February 18) has clearly never negotiated anything, let alone a trade deal. If so, he would understand the fundamental element of any negotiation – the Best Realistic Alternative.

If the UK were to leave the EU with no deal and, in his words, "secure our freedom to make deals the world over" the UK will have no such realistic alternative and those with whom we are negotiating will turn the negotiation screw accordingly, knowing that we have nowhere to turn if their particular deal cannot be concluded on terms acceptable to them.

This is already apparent in existing trade negotiations where Japan, China and US can see that, the longer they delay the process, the more likely they are to get the deal they want from an increasingly desperate UK.

Not only would the UK. be at the mercy of any such country in those negotiations, having nowhere else to turn, but we would have the added handicap, post a no-deal Brexit, of not only needing any deal, but needing any deal quickly. Any party in a hurry in a negotiation is considerably weakened, as the opposing party need only sit on their hands until they get precisely what they want.

Jeremy Hunt and Liam Fox's recent astonishingly-naive letter to the Japanese trade delegation demonstrated exactly that desperation for a quick deal has now seriously prejudiced their own negotiating position

Bill Keil,

19 Warriston Avenue, Edinburgh.