It is vital to have a referendum at time of the Brexit agreement

The Prime Minister will have to put the same agreement to the House of Commons and the House of Lords for their concurrence. So just about everyone except the legislatures of the two nations of the UK that voted Remain will be able to give their view on the between October 2018 and March 2019.

We are told that, even after the UK has left the EU in March 2019, we will still not know enough about a Brexit deal to be able to vote on independence, with dates such as 2021 or 2022 mooted. The outline of some elements are already apparent.

Refusal to accept freedom of movement and the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice mean that the UK will leave the single market. The European Parliament’s response to Brexit makes clear the significance of the Good Friday Agreement and the open border in Ireland.

The May Government has introduced the Great Repeal Bill which will make thousands of amendments to the EU’s acquis between now and Brexit day. Some will be minor, striking out references to EU institutions, while others will be substantial, notably where an entire EU regulatory regime has to be replaced by a British alternative.

But recently Jacqueline Minor, head of representation for the European Commission in the UK, said EU accession for Scotland would be much more straightforward than for other applicant countries, since Scotland is aligned with the acquis already, and familiar with European processes. The Great Repeal Bill means, therefore, that the longer Scotland is part of the UK after Brexit, the more difficult and complex it will be to rejoin the EU, making a referendum at or soon after Brexit vitally important.

Alasdair Galloway,

14 Silverton Avenue,

Dumbarton.

DESPITE Theresa May saying “now is not the time”, the SNP is ploughing on regardless in its determination to hold a second independence referendum. There is no regard taken about the decisive 2014 referendum result nor the SNP minority government’s position of not having its manifesto commitments agreed to by more than 50% of voters; nor even the fact no polls are showing any appetite for another vote.

The SNP is not listening to the majority of Scots nor is it concerned that it has no answers to many of the problems Scotland would face if it is dragged out of the UK. The SNP wants independence at any cost, no matter the damage caused. This is not the action of a responsible administration.

This looks like the actions of a government that knows it will lose the next Holyrood election due to its poor record in power and hence is throwing everything at one last desperate tilt at the prize without regard to the perilous consequences for Scotland.

Dr Gerald Edwards,

Broom Rd, Glasgow.

SCOTLAND has asked for another referendum and we all agree that “now is not the time”. We need to let the negotiations get under way and get a good idea of where the UK is likely to be placed by the outcome before we begin making the case for or against independence.

We should have a clear picture around September or October 2018 of the shape of any agreement. Negotiations will be completed, or maybe abandoned, and the various EU countries will be taking the outcome to their own parliaments; there will be no secrets.

That is the time when decisions need to be made about whether it is either a good or a bad deal for Scotland.

That is when a date should be set for the next independence referendum. That is when the campaigning on both sides should begin.

There will be enough time then for all of us to make the necessary decision and to try to convince those on the other side to change their mind before the likely vote sometime in 2019. Some of the things I will watch for are: First, the value of the pound and whether it will have further to fall, in which case the consequences in inflation and fuel prices will be terrible.

Secondly, oil production in the North Sea has fallen and that is bad luck for Aberdeen but others will reap the benefit. The new frontier in oil exploration is west of Shetland and down the west coast. The caravan is moving on. The Lancaster, Clair and other fields are just beginning to be exploited and nobody yet knows just how big they are of how profitable they will be. Indications are that there may well be another bonanza in the west.

Thirdly, Westminster will sell the crown jewels to keep London’s access to the European finance market. Watch for deals giving control of fishing.

Fourthly, The Great Repeal Act will come out and lumber through Westminster. Watch for damage to many things: workers’ rights and justice for the underprivileged at the top of the list.

DS Blackwood,

1 Douglas Drive East,

Helensburgh.

LONG before the UK joined the then EEC, my (state) school and others set up a thriving exchange programme with schools in a French city. This gave me a window on French culture and, strange to say, many of us actually began to speak French as well. We might have missed out on “International Education and Global Citizenship” but we were given real skills to use for a lifetime (Letters, March 31); all of this with no support from governments or European quangos.

While at university, again before the UK entered the EEC, I visited many of the countries of Western Europe without difficulty. Language students, of whom I was not one, did their year abroad, and European students were to be found in every British university. Adding a little extra frisson, I went behind the Iron Curtain to Hungary and Czechoslovakia, for which visas were needed (as they won’t be post-Brexit) but were easy to secure.

No doubt former depute headteacher Gordon Ferrie would discount these experiences as being “insular, inward and nostalgic” merely because they did not have the support of European government bureaucracy. Unlike Mr Ferrie, I have every confidence that, after leaving the EU, Scottish students, schools and universities will rise above his negativism and continue links with Europe; and link to the 85 per cent of the world, namely those who live outside the EU.

John Burton,

Gatelawbridge House,

Gatelawbridge, Thornhill, Dumfriesshire.

MESS, morass, muddle, shambles? Take your pick. What a sorry sight: the Tory administration in familiar Westminster mode, cloaking incompetence with arrogance. Theresa May’s letter to the EU, a masterpiece of inconsistency, combined a plea for sympathetic understanding on trade with a crude threat of reduced cooperation on security. Cue silky diplomatic skills: Send for Boris.

The Great Repeal Bill is intended to repatriate legislative powers from the EU to the UK. The Secretary for Brexit should be au fait with the provisions and the effects but David Davis, pressed in the Commons, declined to answer basic questions. Ignorance or arrogance ?

Is it not time the Prime Minister and her acolytes got back to “the day job”? In England’s green and pleasant land, the problems facing education, transport, health, social services and defence far outweigh those in Scotland (even on a comparative basis).

Joe McLaughlin,

5E Hughenden Gardens,

Glasgow.

THERE$A May has no alternative but to make the best of an impossible task by focusing on the potential upside of leaving the EU. She was a Remainer and has the unenviable task of negotiating a deal which, based on the initial response from the EU, will be difficult.

Now that the British public have had time to reflect on their decision to leave it is evident that, given another chance, they would choose to stay. After all how could they possibly have made a properly considered decision given the amount of false information they were fed by the Brexiters?

Iain Macwhirter’s criticism of Mrs May’s speech to parliament was ill founded as it failed to acknowledge that she is simply laying out her plans for a friendly exit process (“Be very afraid: The Brexit nightmare is truly upon us”, The Herald, March 30). Mrs May has a mandate she must follow, however much she finds the issue illogical and distasteful. I imagine she has little affection for the position she has been thrust into.

It is not she who deserves the criticism but the Brexiters who have forced all of us into this cauldron of division and uncertainty and who unfairly find fault with every detail of the Prime Minister’s strategy.

There are few people who would wish to take on the task of negotiating our exit from the EU and, rather than constant criticism, we should all offer our support to Mrs May’s efforts to secure the best deal she can for us, the people.

JB Hamilton,

Wellmuir, Humbie Rd,

Glasgow.

OUR First Minister is determined to reshape us in her image, ignoring all who do not agree with her, even is it is the Prime Minister of the UK (“Sturgeon threatens to torpedo Brexit legislation to avert Westminster ‘power grab”’, The Herald, March 31).

Yet she reassured us she would govern for all of us, make education her top priority and only hold another referendum when it was clear the people of Scotland wanted it. Is the rush to hold a rerun within 18 months because no matter what was said before, she senses she is simply running out of time?

Keith Howell, White Moss,

West Linton, Peeblesshire.

HOW dangerous to a politician is a camera. The First Minister, composing a Section 30 letter to Theresa May, demonstrates her pleasure with a smirk (The Herald, March 31). How pleasant it would be if she were smiling honestly about the performance of NHS Scotland. What a valuable distraction is a Section 30 letter related to Brexit.

William Durward,

20 South Erskine Park, Bearsden