POST-WAR Britain dealt successfully with a Gold Standard crisis, Suez, Devaluation and the IMF. Admission to the EU, after a protracted period of pleading, the later successful Falklands War and the flow of North Sea oil raised the economy and national morale. Premier Tony Blair, an open admirer of Margaret Thatcher, sought to emulate her war successes and we entered into exhausting and costly wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. PPI increased public debt by off-balance-sheet accounting and on top of this was the financial crisis. Nevertheless, Britain adroitly fought above her weight on the global stage.

Brexit however, has brought about international humiliation. I wonder, therefore, which will go first, our membership of the Security Council or the Union Flags flying over Gibraltar, te Falklands or the Six Counties of Ireland?

RF Gibson,

2 Southview Drive, Strathblane.

THERESA May is completely incompetent and should not be Prime Minister. She is relying on our MPs being supine enough to eventually vote for her deal if she keeps putting it before them often enough. The incompetence of our leaders is unsurprising, but one thing that is really surprising is that no one has noticed that although she insists that Brexit is the will of the people and must be fulfilled, no matter what damage it does to our country, she insists at the same time that her personal will must be fulfilled.

This seems to be a clear defiance of democracy and in direct contradiction to her other statements on her own version of democracy. Is it possible that our politicians are suffering from a form of mass hysteria?

James Evans,

112 Highmains Avenue, Dumbarton.

“HERE’S a how-de-do, here’s a how-de-do!" If Gilbert and Sullivan were alive today, they would have enough political material to write two or three comic operas (“MPs tell May to seek delay as Tories split by free vote”, Herald March 15).

But the increasingly bizarre events at Westminster are too serious to be made fun of. This is the economic and political future of the United Kingdom and the next two or three generations of its citizens that are under threat, while our politicians play silly games at Westminster. There are now only days to go until we are due to leave the European Union, yet we are still unable even to negotiate an agreed settlement, let alone make proper arrangements for all the catastrophic effects for British business and the future prospects of the nation’s people over the next two generations or more.

There is very little time left, but I believe it is now essential that the UK Government asks the EU for an extension to allow sufficient time for another national referendum to ask the British people, now hopefully fully aware of the disastrous economic and social consequences, if they want to confirm or reverse the decision of the 2016 referendum (in which, let us remember, Scotland and other parts of the United Kingdom voted to remain).

Incredibly, some MPs have actually claimed that such a final vote “would be undemocratic”. They must have a very strange idea of democracy.

Let the people have the final say – it is they who after all will have to live with the consequences.

Iain A D Mann,

7 Kelvin Court, Glasgow.

May to ask Brussels for Brexit delay

ONE wonders if Schadenfreude is right at this moment? Bring on a no deal, even by default, and the advocates of Leave will face the political consequences of their decisions and votes.

Indeed, a great deal of personal hardship will follow, but this is what the archaic and now-atrophying UK political and constitutional system has led to, no deal and no direction. The threats are self-inflicted this time.

All the flummery, pomp, faux mystique and uncritical reverence has masked the creaky systems of government in the first-past-the-post system. Add to that the plethora of arcane precedents, conventions and Erskine May guidelines set for an aristocratic landowning class of MPs, and add the current "Mayist" antics of repeat tabling of rejected motions, then the system is now dysfunctional on a grand scale. Blend in the personal incompetence of key ministers from the Prime Minister downwards, and chaos ensues.

So what will bring the upholders of this auld creaking Union to their senses? North of the Tweed the rejection of it has already begun, but south of the Tweed the reverence for the fundamental system has yet to be seriously challenged.

No deal might just kick the complacency out of their introverted mindset, having been fed a diet of jingoistic Rule Britannia for the last 200 years.

Schadenfreude, perhaps, but the system cannot continue on its old ways patched up here and there with jerry-built methods and manipulated chicanery.

John Edgar,

1a Langmuir Quadrant, Kilmaurs.

WHAT is it about a woman who has set her face against a second referendum as a betrayal of democracy, yet insists on bringing back time and time again to the floor of the House her massively flawed and twice-massacred Withdrawal Agreement?

Her hope is that she will win this war of attrition with the cliff edge of March 29 looming, thereby stampeding the Brexiters to abandon their hope of a no deal Brexit, which is now off the table, and to support her egregious deal.

So a dead woman walking could capitalise upon a loss of nerve by Brexiters, fearful that a lengthy Article 50 extension will mean No Brexit at all, and will be able to walk away with head held high and her legacy secure in that her deal will have gained enough votes to be passed.

Her fear of being categorised as a failure will then have been removed and she could then safely retire to write her memoirs as the woman who would not take no for an answer.

She would happily leave others to clear up the mess and confusion that she compounded to the nth degree after David Cameron's tragic initial miscalculation.

Denis Bruce,

5 Rannoch Gardens, Bishopbriggs.

THERE is no need for a General Election or a second referendum. Request a six-month extension to Article 50. Participate in the European Parliamentary Election.

In each constituency have one candidate representing Hard Brexit, one candidate representing Mrs May’s Brexit and one candidate representing Remain. Count all votes cast to see which deal commands majority support and act accordingly. Simples.

Norman Bolton,

3 Paidmyre Crescent, Newton Mearns.