Scots voters clearly value EU above the UK

AS usual, the weekend provided no respite from the question of Brexit and “the will of the people”. It appears from recent polling that more than 100 Leave-voting constituencies now would vote to Remain, meaning that this “will” may have substantially changed as the disastrous consequences become ever clearer, but a chance to demonstrate this in a vote of the people is still no nearer.

I have in the past expressed my belief that the referendum was manipulated by the exclusion of many who have committed their future to the UK – EU citizens living here permanently – and the inclusion of many who have abandoned this country, gone abroad and will be unaffected by the consequences. I might add the anomaly that of the four nations of the UK, and one overseas territory – Gibraltar – three voted Remain but were overruled simply on the basis of raw population numbers.

I expect to hear the usual cries of “we are one country” and “Scots voted to stay in the UK”, but by a small margin. I suggest that the argument that a No vote was the only way to stay in the EU was extremely influential and of prime importance to many. For Remain then to have won by such a huge margin must surely prove that a) Scots think it more important to remain in the EU than in the UK and b) that many No voters, influenced by that Unionist promise, when it was broken, found their reason for staying in the UK was gone. They therefore changed their vote to uphold their original views. Some Yes voters voted to leave, and so, for the substantial margin for Remain, a very large number must have had EU membership as their objective in both referenda.

I believe that Scots have twice made clear their view that EU membership is of prime importance to our future, even over the maintenance of the Union. Yet our views have been totally ignored and all past promises broken. The will of the people?

P Davidson,

Gartcows Road, Falkirk.

I SUGGEST that all those who are legitimately concerned by the spectacle of Steve Bannon “schooling far-right movements across Europe [being] in touch with Mr Johnson in recent weeks” start to seriously contemplate the prospects of the apparent post cliffedge Brexit far-right coup which is being planned by the Extreme Brexiters (“Boris Johnson would be `great Prime Minister’, says former Trump adviser Steve Bannon”, your front page 13 August).

Not only do we have the Johnson/ Bannon links but we have the unsavoury relationship between Liam Fox and his American colleagues, from his Atlantic Bridge days, determined to convert our entire unregulated society (especially the NHS) into a totally open market to be plundered by the US corporate sector. Atlantic Bridge was a think-tank for the movers and shakers of the hard right founded by DR Fox himself.

I cannot understand why Jacob Rees-mogg, who is so passionate about the UK “recovering its sovereignty”, is saying nothing about his Brexit collaborators’ intentions. If we have to share our sovereignty with others, which I believe to be inevitable, I would rather do so with Europe rather than with America, particularly a Trumpite America.

John Milne,

9 Ardgowan Drive, Uddingston.

LINDSAY Brydon regards George Cunningham’s effective tactics prior to the 1979 referendum as “an infamous footnote in Scottish political history” (Herald Obituary, August 11), an opinion which, like many expressed on the Letters Pages, takes a selective view of the democratic process.

Cunningham employed established procedure to achieve his desired outcome while those seeking separation from the United Kingdom pick and choose which votes to accept as binding, their reactions following the 2014 “once in a lifetime” referendum and Brexit being exemplary.

Duncan Macintyre,

2 Fort Matilda Terrace,

Greenock.

TODAY (August 13) you publish another letter from Iain AD Mann complaining in general terms yet again about Theresa May and Brexit and calling yet again for Scotland to be independent. Whilst he is of course perfectly entitled to hold these views with which I disagree, may I remind him simply that in his previous letter published recently on these same topics I took some comfort from the fact that he ended that letter by stating “I rest my case”. So be it, please.

Alan Fitzpatrick,

10 Solomon’s View, Dunlop.