AS each day passes the abject failure of the UK Government when it comes to Brexit has highlighted that the UK is not the superpower it anticipated to be in such negotiations (“May bids to crush Tory plotters as her grip on power slips”, The Herald, March 25).

In Brexiter eyes the Germans and French would sacrifice the integrity of the single market, happy to capitulate as the former scrambled to sell their BMWs, while the latter did likewise with their wine and cheese. However, this is clearly not the case and never was. It simply epitomises Tory arrogance at is very worst.

The EU is bigger than the UK. If we leave without an agreement, that is a nuisance for the EU — about 10 per cent of its trade is with us; but not as much as it is for us, as the UK represents 49 per cent of our trade and no deal risks being a catastrophe.

When you leave the club you are no longer treated as one, you lose the privileges, something Brexiters never quite understood due to what they saw as the UK’s economic and political might. To them the rules would clearly be changed, allowing the UK to having its cake and eat it.

Not only are we paying the price for such arrogance but we are also paying the price for having a British Parliament whose awareness of the EU and how it functions is appalling. There have been years of abject failure to explain the EU to the public and what it is for, in terms of the many economic, social and environmental benefits.

We are all the victims of collateral damage in a bitter Tory civil war which still continues, and whose participants pay little heed to what devastation it causes.

Alex Orr,

2/3 Marchmont Road, Edinburgh.

“YOU can’t always get what you want” was an unlikely campign anthem for Donald Trump but it should be the motto of every practical politician, a Rolling Stones verson of JK Galbraith’s famous advice to JFK that “... politics is not the art of the possible. It is frequently the choice between the unpalatable and the disastrous”.

There can be few better examples of this than the mess over Brexit. However, there is way out of potential disaster which might be the least unpalatable choice for a majority of the people.

This would be for Parliament to define the choices available and then to vote on these in an exhaustive ballot until two options only were left. These would then be voted on by the public in a referendum, which could be held on the same day as the European elections. (If the result was to leave, the votes in that election would be counted and successful parties and candidates could decide whether to take their seats until such time that withdrawal was complete.)

This procedure is the same as that followed by the Tory Party in choosing its leader, so Conservatives should be happy. Those in favour of a People’s Vote should be happy. Those of us who believe that, in a representative democracy Parliament should be in charge of the process, should be happy. And as the song says “if you try some time, you just might find you get what you need.”

Peter A. Russell,

87 Munro Road, Glasgow.

BREXIT paralysis has been caused by the undemocratic nature of the UK Parliament and the “my way or the highway” political culture it promotes. Generations of MPs have been schooled for their entire career to never compromise with the views in another party.

Every other EU member state has a national parliament constituted on the basis of proportional representation. Negotiation and compromise are mandatory after every election, as no party achieves a majority on their own. The failure to have skills in this regard has prevented the Prime Minister from agreeing a way forward that the whole house of commons can except.

The Conservatives have six per cent or 40 more seats than they deserve through voter share. Comparing the democratic credentials of the UK and Norway shows the UK to be backward and slow to change. Norway gave women equal votes to men in 1913. The UK refused to accept that women and men were equal until 1948. Proportional Representation, which is the bedrock of fair elections throughout Europe, is resisted in the UK. Add to this the appointed House of Lords, and the UK is an embarrassing undemocratic anachronism in a modern Europe.

The Scottish Parliament, the Northern Ireland Assembly and the Welsh Assembly have adopted PR and benefit hugely from it. The skills to successfully negotiate are absent from the Prime Minister and her political class. This will be the main reason for her Brexit downfall.

Francis Buchan,

5 Drybrough Crescent, Edinburgh.

THERESA May should acknowledge her deal has not substantially changed and Speaker John Bercow has said he will not allow a third vote on that basis.

She should sack the Remainers in her Cabinet and bring in Boris Johnson, Jacob Rees-Mogg, David Davis, Michael Gove and Dominic Raab together with others who can be relied on to support Brexit and leave without a deal as the law requires. She would have a united Cabinet and accomplish what the electorate voted for and restore faith in democracy. She should them buy a pair of ear muffs to protect her hearing from the wails of the Remoaners who have no faith in Britain to succeed on its own.

Angus Macmillan,

Meikle Boturich, Near Balloch.

THE Brexit debacle brings a whole new meaning to the expression “You couldn’t make it up”. Given that resigned incredulity is increasingly becoming the order of the day for most people, I wonder if it might be better all round to cancel April Fools’ Day this year. Maybe we could have a May Fools’ Day instead?

Iain Stuart,

34 Oakbank Crescent, Perth.

ONE million people turned out in London protesting against Brexit. Five million people have signed a petition requesting the government to revoke Article 50 and that we stay in the EU. When will our politicians wake up and concede that the referendum was a gigantic mistake? The economy is being damaged. The political impasse makes us look foolish in the eyes of the world. This farce should be ended as soon as possible.

Richard Morris,

Letham Drive, Glasgow.