Letters: It is folly to be leaving the EU at this crucial time

These have been outlined as the future of Europe and young people, security and stability in Europe, the Western Balkans and the digital economy.

Under the motto, "united we stand strong", these priorities are established around the delivery of security, stability and solidarity for the EU.

While we in the UK are navel-gazing about the Brexit negotiations, there is a mistaken belief that the rest of the EU is as obsessed, but this could hardly be further from the truth. The EU moves on, delivering on the practical solutions that will deliver a more competitive, flexible and successful EU. While the outcomes of this will clearly impact and benefit the UK, with Brexit the UK is now but a bit-player on the EU stage.

Next year will be a key year when it comes to EU enlargement. So while the UK will be exiting the largest single market in the world, two nations in the Western Balkans, Serbia and Montenegro, look set to be the top candidates for the next round of enlargement.

Security and migration policies are also key matters that will be debated. The presidency will work towards solutions in the area of asylum policy and in short and long-term measures aimed at the source of migration, not only at the consequences thereof.

There will also be a renewed focus on the delivery of the single digital market, including a focus on electronic communications and cyber-security.

There is a certain irony that as the EU enlarges and debates crucial matters which will have such a profound impact on the UK, the UK has taken the decision to pick up the ball and walk off the field.

Alex Orr,

Board Member, The European Movement in Scotland,

c/o 91 George Street, Edinburgh.

EIGHTEEN months ago the result of the Brexit referendum was announced to much cheering from the Leave campaign.

We had been told, with unimaginable arrogance, that if we decided to leave, a raft of other countries might well follow suit. Where are they?

We were also promised £350 million a week would be available for our National Health Service. Where is it?

The reality seems to be that after marching out the front door of the EU to Trumpeting and drum rolls, we are now trying to crawl back through the back door, on our bellies, and paying £60 billion for a worse deal than we originally had.

The Westminster Cabinet has been exposed as steeped in mediocrity; damned by disunity and marinated in mendacity.

To compound the felony we have a Prime Minister who expounds such Churchillian profundities as: "Brexit means Brexit" and "Nothing is settled till everything's settled". That really is a help.

In the end we will be left with the Irish problem. You can't square a circle. Swept under the carpet, it remains insoluble.

Joseph G Miller,

44 Gardeners Street, Dunfermline.

I DISPUTE David Torrance's assertion that the SNP is not interested in its history or philosophy (“SNP could be about to gift the centre ground to the Tories”, The Herald, December 28). However, both the history and philosophy of the Conservative Party are notorious in Scotland, with the poll tax, the decimation of Scotland's industries and Tory opposition at the 1997 referendum to the creation of a Scottish Parliament being just a few examples. Indeed, the Project Fear scare story in 1997 was that if Scotland voted for a devolved parliament we would be "isolated from the rest of the UK". A slogan that has a familiar ring.

Mr Torrance gives a perfect example of an oxymoron when he writes that "Ruth Davidson's moderate Scottish Toryism is getting into its stride". Currently, Ms Davidson is bowing to her superior officer in Downing Street, but recent events have suggested that she has her finger on the pulse of the devices and desires of traditional Middle England Conservative Party members in their leafy suburbs and chocolate box constituencies who, unlike David Torrance, recognise a true blue Tory when they see one; and Ms Davidson is playing to that gallery for all she is worth.

There is nothing moderate about Ms Davidson and her Conservative colleagues. Much as they may try to gloss over their past history they cannot separate themselves from the damage they have done and continue to do to Scotland, and that is why Scotland won't be duped by the smiley Tory leader and will continue to reject the toxic Tory brand.

Ruth Marr,

99 Grampian Road, Stirling.

TACTFUL isn't a word springs to mind when Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson is mentioned. However, how should this make him a liability? Mr Johnson is shown on TV engaging in cheerful banter with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov and in Iran with top government personnel in similar jovial circumstance. It is no secret he boobs, says what some think he shouldn't say, and is not too mindful of his Ps and Qs. The thing is, we all know people like this. Some are high profile, some aren't. If anything, this boobing business is a human trait. Occasionally it causes trouble for them and sometimes for others too, and just because we might praise the trait rather than condemn it doesn't mean its possible harmful effects are ignored.

Arising from the meeting between Messrs Johnson and Lavrov, for instance, was the matter of whether Scotland's independence referendum was on the up and up. Mr Lavrov voiced a Russian view that it wasn't, Mr Johnson was seemingly focused on Russia interfering in internal UK politics. The propriety and legitimacy of the 2014 Scotland independence referendum is a topic that hasn't been much debated in the UK nor indeed encouraged, yet the huge increase in support for the SNP immediately following the failed referendum could suggest there was a sense of grievance, a feeling that something unfair had occurred.

Such topics are often taken from their dark corners less because of people who crusade and more because of people like Mr Johnson who are liable to commit errors of diplomacy.

Ian Johnstone,

84 Forman Drive, Peterhead.