THREE great myths were exposed on Monday during the Westminster pantomime that unfolded.
The first was the point often made by the Tories in Scotland about the 2014 referendum being the most divisive ever held. Project Brexit, an exclusive Tory project, is proving to be the gold standard in relation to being divisive and more importantly costly.
With the pound dropping further, the estimated £500 million a week cost of this referendum result to everyone in the UK just got a little bit more expensive. Nothing I watched yesterday, except the excellent comments made by our SNP representatives, gave any indication that anyone else had an interest in keeping an eye on the very expensive taxi meter that is continually running on this journey, which looks likely to end up at the scrapyard.
When we achieve independence, I think David Cameron’s face should be on our £50 note in gratitude for his contributions towards both independence and Brexit.
Secondly, our English neighbours seem to waking up to the fact that the Westminster system is somehow broken and not serving them well. Welcome to the real world, a world that Scotland has been living in for a very long time.
Despite their best efforts, the Speaker of the house, Unionist politicians and journalists are running out of procedures to guide this creaking system to a conclusion that our great family of nations can unite behind. Good luck with that one. First rule: when you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.
Hold the vote and make the politicians take their overdue medicine, unpalatable though it may be. On Monday the mother of parliaments had little to do with democracy and was repetitive, stage-managed chaos. This is the democratic deficit that that the majority in Scotland now wish to address by charting our own course.
Last and by no means least, Scotland needs the broad shoulders of the UK to survive and thrive. My impression over my lifetime is that the UK has broad shoulders to take the weight of the brass that they have around their necks. The scrap value of which will not help in improving the balance sheet once the final Brexit bill arrives.
Des McFarlane
via email
READ MORE: Brexit Brief: An absolute clusterbùrach of a day for Theresa May
BREXIT – again, and again. Will it ever go away? Do you remember the fable of the Emperor’s New Clothes? It took a small child to expose it for the crazy, vain and needless charade it was. Did the emperor call a referendum?
If “taking back control” had any meaningful credence at all it was surely that the House of Commons through our parliamentary democracy is and always will be paramount, over the wishes of the government of the day. Any referendum of the people for whatever reason should always be to advise our parliamentary democracy. Parliament should, of course, always take note and deal with issues that arise therefrom and be accountable at a General Election.
Mrs May’s “deal” is by most commentators, the general public and politicians of all persuasions a ragbag of nothing really. Trying to be all things to all sorts, she cannot deliver anything because in my opinion she is now in an impossible position.
She gambled through her ill-judged General Election decision in 2017 – what a long time ago this seems – and is now suffering the consequences, as a hostage to factions in her own political party.
So, where are we? Maybe a Member of Parliament – hopefully of the House of Commons, but it could be from the House of Lords – will take the part of the child who can see through the whole charade for what it really has become: a vanity and ideological project where old men and women with their own vested and financial interests are desperate to prevail, whatever the cost to the general public they profess to represent.
To me, it now comes down to just two options. The UK either abandons Brexit and wakes up and shakes the scales from its eyes, as the child in the fable would tell us, and keep and enjoy all the gravy we have at present, or the UK says “nay, we don’t like Europe and want nothing to do with them or it”. Whatever, the decision must now be decided by Parliament.
If Parliament declines to assert its supremacy over the executive branch, which is the government of the day, then the only way forward would be another referendum. However, to acknowledge our precious UK union as Mrs May puts it, the unique characteristics and legitimate rights of the four nations of the UK would need to be enshrined so that the built-in English majority, 80 per cent of the population and voting rights, does not distort and disregard Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland.
As I have previously stated, one of the uncertainties of the current mess is that there may be a resurgence of the movement for Scottish independence, and quite understandably so given the chaos at Westminster.
We need the child to rescue us from all this. What do you think?
Michael Clarke
Langholm
READ MORE: WATCH: Mhairi Black nails the absurdity of the UK on Brexit
WHOSE advice or consultation did our unelected PM take before pulling out of a yesterday’s critical Commons vote on approval or otherwise of her Brexit deal? Was it her own decision? Little wonder John Bercow was peeved. For a PM whose ego craves the history books at any cost, the word is dictator.
Iain R Thomson
Cannich
LET’S not beat about the bush. Any hour, day or week wasted bringing next March nearer without decisions and agreements is time bought for the right-wing coup that Brexit has become fronted by Theresa May.
Richard Easson
Dornoch
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