“DEFEAT for EU Withdrawal Bill would be democratic sabotage”, says Andrew McKie (The Herald, June 12). Surely that suggestion is rather late. The democratic sabotage of the EU Referendum was started by the lies spread by the Leave Campaign during the referendum campaign.

It is especially galling that you should print this given that two-thirds of the people in this country voted to remain in the EU but are being dragged along by the shambolic Brexit forced down our throats by Tories out of touch with Scottish opinion and by Labour which has not yet realised that there is a place called Scotland.

What you should be campaigning on is that we are a European country and that the whole EU including Scotland will be permanently damaged by Brexit and trivial amendments to a daft Withdrawal Bill will leave us all in an isolationist backwater called Britain. If only British and Scottish politics would stop their navel-gazing and concentrate on reforming the EU. Strip the commission of its power of legislative initiative and turn it into a European civil service. Strengthen the power of the European Parliament. Remove the exclusive competences over fishing and marine biological resources. Reward countries which encourage migration. Have a European policy to encourage internal enlargement. Keep Scotland in the single market and customs union.

Don’t let Scotland be held back by Britain or Brexit.

George Leslie,

North Glassock, Fenwick.

I DO not know how Andrew McKie defines democracy but I cannot think of any definition that describes the society in which we live. I understand that 38 per cent of those individuals entitled to vote in the referendum voted to leave the European Union. This means that some 62 per cent of people voted not to leave or did not vote. Such a result would not have been enough to change the constitution of a golf club to allow women to be admitted as members. Mr McKie’s further problem is that it appears that 62 per cent of those entitled to vote in Scotland voted to stay. For that result to be ignored because of the majority in England is not democracy but imperialism.

Branislav Sudjic,

38 Hunter Street, Kirkcaldy.

ALL the people concerned that Brexit will weaken the UK economy, can stop worrying --- our economy is already weak. How any political or economic commentator can refer to 0.1 per cent (first quarter) as being growth at all is beyond me. For growth to be effective, it has to be at least three per cent.

The March to May figure (0.2 per cent) is once more being blamed on our inclement weather in March. It is staggering to think that four days of heavy snow could have such an impact on our output.

To make matters worse, there are hawks on the Monetary Policy Committee who want to slow the economy (to prevent it from over-heating, to use their term) by increasing interest rates.

An economy as anaemic as ours really doesn’t need higher vehicle fuel prices, higher home fuel costs, higher mortgage costs and lower real wage growth. But don’t worry, I am sure that those good old Brexit people will have a formula for correcting all those anomalies.

Francis Deigman,

12 Broomlands Way, Erskine.

GIVEN the recent history of catastrophic failures in both public and private sectors, and susceptibility to fraud and hacking, anybody who seriously thinks that an IT solution will solve future customs and excise issues must be out of their Brexit-addled minds.

Douglas McKenzie,

Crawhill Lodge,

Westfield, West Lothian.