I’VE never been able to understand why the whole Brexit issue was not challenged more vigorously right from day one.

This has never been about any betterment for the UK as a whole. It started as a Tory party vanity project and has continued to be so. Perhaps the Conservative Party should be obliged to cover the costs accrued by this totally useless government.

READ MORE: EU president says there's a 'special place in hell' for these Brexiteers

The EU is far from perfect but was set up for peace and co-operation. Even Winston Churchill thought it a good thing. Perhaps if successive right-wing UK governments had got involved constructively, instead of carping from the sidelines, we might have helped to improve it. There are many projects that would not have seen the light of day without funding from the EU.

Why should EU countries roll over for the Tories? They did not ask us to leave!

Such a momentous constitutional issue should never have happened on meagre turn-out and minimal “win” – so-called, it wasn’t a binding referendum.

Scotland is a country in its own right, and should make its own policies and decisions. My grandchildren and great grandchildren deserve that to happen.

M A Walker
Troon

THERE she has done it again. Changed her mind, tailoring the message to the audience before her forgetting that others will be listening and watching.

Only now “changes” to the backstop! The ERG group and the DUP expect it to be abandoned so that Northern Ireland, which voted to remain, can be Brexited.

How will Brussels interpret this? It has said the Withdrawal Agreement is not open for discussion. Theresa May’s vacillation is now legend. What next? Revoke Article 50 unilaterally?

There is now no way the EU can really expect her to stay strong and stable – she simply forgets what she has committed herself to and jumps ship!

This is really the end of the beginning and the beginning of the end!

John Edgar
Kilmaurs

READ MORE: Theresa May faces fresh backlash over Brexit backstop​

IT will be 80 years on September 3 this year since, at the age of seven, we were sent home early from school and my mother met me on the way to tell me that war had been declared but that I was not to worry.

We learned that the storm clouds had been gathering over Europe since Hitler and his gang took control in Germany with their ambition to conquer the world. And growing up during the war years has left lasting memories of the blackouts, the gas masks, the air raid warnings and the bombs.

And when I heard the latest news about the USA and Russia abandoning the INF nuclear treaty so that they can develop more deadly weapons – for fun only, of course – the old fears suddenly came back to mind. Then I remembered the other news item some weeks earlier about problems experienced at the Hunterston nuclear power installation. And it struck me again that in the west of Scotland the river Clyde is flanked by nuclear installations on both sides.

One fond memory of World War Two is of the lovely and loved Anderson shelters that many people had in their gardens and how they were decorated and had the comforts of home to retreat to when lives were being endangered by enemy bombing. And how after the war they were made into very nice garden sheds. But times have changed and I don’t know how many metres below ground the shelters would have to be installed, or how we would access them in the event of a raid, even if we did get enough warning. And what would be the fate of high-rise dwellers? Hopefully it would not just be a matter of clearing the dead bodies from the streets, a phrase used in relation to Libya.

So, when should planning begin to ensure we are more ready than last time? Or would it just be simpler to rid Scotland of Trident without delay and avoid the problem? Because it must surely be expected that whatever Trump decides to do must be followed by his allies with whom there is a special relationship.

Robert Johnston
Airdrie

A VOICE was heard amidst the Brexit roadshow to nowhere in the House of Commons yesterday for pensioners across Scotland, as SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford raised at Prime Minister’s Questions the plight of pensioners being plunged into poverty by the heartless Conservative government – a government with no conscience.

Mr Blackford informed the Commons that the government had sneaked through cuts to Pension Credits which could realise up to £7,000 cuts for some pensioner households. Added to that, he brought up the shameful decision being taken by the BBC to abolish free TV licences for over-75s.

But it didn’t stop there. Mr Blackford spoke up for the WASPI (Women Against State Pension Inequality) women, those born in the 1950s who are currently being denied their state pension. The ruthless Conservatives have no red lines, as we all know from their cruel welfare reforms and austerity cuts, but now our pensioners appear to be in the firing line.

Should we be surprised? Well perhaps we should remind ourselves of the Conservatives’ future intentions for pensioners as included in their 2017 manifesto. A pledged to abolish the “triple lock” on state pensions in 2020, effectively denying a guaranteed minimum 2.5% annual increase.

With an ageing population in Scotland, those cuts will have a devastating effect not just for pensioners but for the wider economy.

Catriona C Clark
Falkirk