WHILE Prime Minister May desperately tries to ensure a future for the UK Tory party, the citizens of the UK become more and more disillusioned with the false narratives put forward by her on behalf of the UK elite and their mainstream media. This deceit is now at a level such that the starting point of any internal discussion commences with multiple non-factual starting points, and inevitably agrees nothing.

In the effective absence of a UK Government, the Scottish Government needs to keep its people moving forward towards a fairer society, in a rapidly changing global world. If we look at 0.05% of UK GDP, ie fisheries, we can see that the gradual shifting of existing corporate fishing quotas to more diffuse, sustainable, non-corporate fishing community ownership models could be widely beneficial to Scottish society.

However, such changes to infrastructure, community, and employment and national/international trade would require multi-agency working on the lines of a piecemeal city deal and would take both time and substantial collective agreement.

If Scotland were independent within the EU, it could perhaps lead on such community-based regeneration as exemplar for other EU states and perhaps with the benefit of its natural resources, leverage agreement with the EU. The UK Government, in contrast, has made it disconcertingly clear that after Brexit there will be no change to the existing corporate quota system, retaining the existing system to enable possible future trade deals.

To ensure a sustainable future for multiple fishing communities, Scotland needs to first stop Brexit. Becoming self-governing in respect of its fisheries may still not be enough unless it had a special relationship with the EU within the UK, which seems unlikely, so it also requires to be an independent coastal nation within the EU.

As for the other Brexit matters, ie 99.05% of UK GDP that affects Scotland directly or indirectly, Scotland is going to require mutually beneficial frameworks with the rUK, followed by more detailed focussed regulation/facilitation, which can be addressed by the next three Scottish Parliaments.

It is not clear whether the No vote in 2014 has effectively lost any constructive negotiating time with the UK Government, given the riven nature of the UK Government, but Scotland may now have to rush to a devo max position somewhat in haste, to enable the herculean task of recreating and improving a society that was/is so abused by Thatcherite dogma.

Stephen Tingle
Greater Glasgow

READ MORE: Shock poll result reveals surge in Scottish opposition to Brexit​

WHAT is the point of PM May going on tour of her precious four kingdoms hoping to gain support from the population for her damaged goods called Brexit? The population will not be taking part in any vote! And does she actually think she will gain support from Northern Ireland and my own country of Scotland?

For Scotland, she referred to its citizens as British. A gross insult before she had even packed her huge vanity bag. What does she hope to gain from giving talks in village halls and the occasional local radio phone-in? Are we supposed to arrange meetings or write letters to our local MPs who, it needs to be said, have already declared which way they will be voting come December 11th?

Her own House of Commons question time revealed her desperation just by the look on her face every time someone stood up to denounce her Brexit deal. In particular when Ian Blackford gave his own speech for Scotland. My word, if looks could kill! It was as if the Ides of March had been reversed. We live in desperate times indeed and Teresa May is the cause and effect of such desperation. Next March is well chosen for Scotland to settle its own “Ides of March”.

Alan Magnus-Bennett
Fife

READ MORE: Prime Minister faces backlash after locking-out The National​

I FEEL obliged to comment on the actions of the Prime Minister. The Withdrawal Agreement can now be called the May Withdrawal Agreement. The PM is the only person who now sees it as inevitable and the best deal we can get. Imagine! The future of the UK and Scotland, of our future and our children’s future, based on a take-it-or-leave-it option. It has been rejected by many in her own party, by the Opposition in Westminster and by the Scottish Parliament and of course the DUP. The PM, instead of listening to everyone and taking on board concerns, attempts

to body-swerve all the opposition and “talk direct” to the public in a national tour, with the mantra that not only is this the best deal but it’s the only deal on the table. There are no alternative options, no going back, the EU have closed the door on any further changes (the EU took 45 minutes to OK it! I wonder why) and of course we could not possibly remain in the EU, after all the people voted to leave, albeit with no idea of the consequences. The Scots know all about project fear. Add to that a clear appeal by the PM that we are all fed up with Brexit and by the way “Let’s Get On With It!

Let’s examine this bankrupt strategy: bypass all the opposition; talk direct to the people; suggest they are all bored with Brexit; state there is NO alternative; play the “I am doing my best” sympathy card; sell out fishing and Northern Ireland, say “we will never trigger the back stop and do not worry Gibraltar, you’re safe”.

After more than two years, why are we in a situation that asks us to accept an agreement that provides no certainty economically and politically and in fact creates a situation that screams out “STAY in the EU”? Why would anyone vote for this? A no-deal Brexit would of course only satisfy those British nationalists who would turn the clock back to a bygone age of Empire and grinding class entitlement.

Thankfully we in Scotland have a real alternative not available to the rest of the UK. Independence of course!

Dan Wood
Kirriemuir