Letters: We must look to our own resources in the wake of Brexit

This is not coincidental, it is criminally incompetent governance. The glib promises to protect pensioners are no longer valid. Britain is already on the slippery slope to recession as the Europeans stop buying British.

America’s President gives every indication of protectionism, one of our most important traditional markets.

Britain is more than one-quarter of the way through the Article 50 period — and has nothing to show for it.

Yet all the major financial centres around the world are in London offering attractive terms for our best talent to move their expertise and their customer contacts to their financial centres.

Our competitors are not floundering about like this Westminster Government. Prime Minister Theresa May has admitted her Government is making contingency plans for no deal. That event would shave a couple of points off GDP growth and plunge Britain into a recession of its own making. We were one of the main players on the world stage, but now from our competitors' viewpoint we look like a dead woman walking.

As Westminster hammers the final nails into the British coffin, we in Scotland need to fall back on our land and sea assets, presently mostly in the hands of rich individuals. Our drinking water, renewable energy production, and hydrogen fuel supplies should also be in public ownership. A prosperous Scottish future with public services can be funded by these resources in public hands.

Ernie Hasler,

Flat 8, 1 Church Place, Old Kilpatrick.

THIS year has seen general elections in three key EU countries namely The Netherlands, France and very recently Germany. Amongst the referendum exaggerations trotted out by many of the Tory Right/Ukip leaders was their contention Brexit would be the beginning of the end for both the Euro and the EU itself.

In all three countries the pro EU vote has held sway with Wilders in Holland. Le Pen in France and the AFD in Germany soundly beaten all round by moderate parties. Of course in Germany the AFD clearly took votes from both the CDU and SPD but nevertheless 87 per cent of the total vote went to strongly pro EU parties. To some up, on a pan European basis, the only anti EU success came in just two constituent parts of one member state and even there only by very small majorities. By the looks of it Brexit actually had the effect of strengthening the EU vote far from causing any contagion.

On the subject of Germany another one of the Leave campaign’s load of utter nonsense is the contention to trade globally we need to be free from the restrictions of the EU. Allan Sutherland touched on this subject in his letter of 26 September but I would like to give some numbers to reinforce his excellent point. In 2016 Germany, who are the world’s third largest exporter and indeed the world’s largest per capita exporter sold $118 billion worth of goods to the USA, $85 billion to China, $25 billion to Turkey, $24 billion to Russia and £19 billion to South Korea. The plain simple fact of the matter these figures quite graphically demonstrate if your product has quality and value it is wholly possible to successfully trade globally from within the EU.

The financial markets have already passed judgment on Brexit by drastically devaluing the Pound and Moody’s have downgraded the UK credit rating. Currently the UK has now a lower growth rate than any of the 27 countries and the NIESR trade forecasts post Brexit are eye wateringly bad. Without any shadow of doubt once the final terms of the negotiation are known a second referendum is a prerequisite to give British voters a final say on their future. The same process should apply if, heaven forbid, there is no deal.

As has been said by many reader contributions the EU is not perfect but, for example, just look at the excellent work it is currently undertaking in the Balkans with Serbia and Macedonia making sound accession progress to membership to join Croatia and Slovenia in the European family of nations.

Bob Ballantine,

31 Clarebank Crescent, Leith, Edinburgh.

I WAS, and as time goes on, even more convinced that remaining within the EU was, and is, the best option for the UK. However the current impasse in negotiation has at its core the key objective of the EU – the desire to prevent other countries breaking away from the. Contagion would be a disaster for Germany and France in particular. It is therefore clear that Britain needs to be seen to be “punished” as a deterrent to other states from considering similar action.

Nigel Farage's “I told you so” speech to the EU Parliament in the aftermath of the Brexit result I'm sure has done much to harden the EU resolve. The political gulf between both sides sets the context for the economic negotiation. Britain's focus now needs to be mitigating the damage of a “no deal” outcome. If our EU neighbours are unwilling to accommodate us perhaps we need to look further afield?

In the final analysis the US will side with its larger EU market; the best Britain can expect from America is a trading status quo. The answer may lie in looking to forge closer relationships with Asia and the Far East as our future trading partners.

Robert Gemmell,

14 Bramble Wynd, Port Glasgow.

BULL in a china shop Boris Johnson's recent call to "let the lion roar" and now for the EU to "put a tiger in the tank" to start talks on trade (“Johnson calls for EU to put a tiger in the tank to start talks on trade”, The Herald, October 13 ) bring other zoomorphs to mind: snake oil, weasel words, all the finesse of ferrets in a sack, white elephant, mad as a March hare, and three men make a tiger (Chinese proverb), with the latter concept analogous to communal reinforcement or the fallacy of argumentum ad populum (Google ).

R Russell Smith,

96 Milton Road, Kilbirnie.