LIAM Fox has said that, when you lose a General Election, you accept the decision and tell yourself to try harder next time.

He uses this argument to reject the idea of a second referendum. There is a difference, Dr Fox. A General Election is held every five years, you get a chance to change your mind. So, two years have now passed since the referendum and we can't change our minds? Leaving the E.U. is for a generation or more, not until the next election. We haven't the luxury of choice.

It has been suggested that there is now a wide disconnect between the voters and their representatives in Parliament, that where the voters are by majority Leavers, MPs are by majority Remainers. Would a fresh General Election resolve the matter? If only. Our first-past-the-post system is guaranteed to entrench an unrepresentative Parliament, as it always has, and ensure that the views of a huge number of voters are ignored.

A second referendum is not only desirable but fully justified and democratic. It is not for Government or Parliament to ratify such an important decision but a properly informed public.

Trevor Rigg,

15 Greenbank Gardens, Edinburgh.

AS Brexit appears to be tearing the Conservative Party apart, from grass roots to ministerial level the man largely responsible for fomenting dissent and chaos, Jacob Rees-Mogg, “leader” of the European Research Group, is well placed for accommodation should Theresa May be dethroned and he inherit the position of Prime Minister. Mr Rees-Mogg has purchased a mansion which is closer to Parliament than number 10 and all for the bargain price of £5.6 million. No matter how the country may crumble after Brexit Mr Rees-Mogg will be well situated for nipping over for Prime Minister's Questions. Yes, be it ever so humble, there is no place like home.

Anne-Marie Colgan,

10 Castle Wynd, Bothwell.

WITH Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson having done the decent thing and the country a favour by resigning, I hope that when he gives his expected “explosive” resignation speech this week the PM will tell him where to put his Portfolio for Tomfoolery and send him on his way with the same blunt dismissal which he recently afforded UK business.

R Russell Smith,

96 Milton Road, Kilbirnie.

ANY claims of " production errors" by the Alex Salmond RT television show will not wash (Herald July 17th. Salmond's show broke broadcasting rules on tweets", The Herald, July 17). Politics is becoming associated far too much with somewhat misleading statements and less than open procedures. This is of particular importance in Scotland. The Scottish National Party is supposed to be above such behaviour but only recently Nicola Sturgeon herself mislead the public with her adamant claim to have banned fracking in Scotland and her then Justice Secretary, Michael Matheson, was caught out by having no records kept of certain important meetings.

When some Scottish politicians are pushing for massive changes in the way the country is run, especially in regard to independence, there has to be trust that they are being completely open about not only the positives but the negatives too and leave the "spin" behind. The turmoil the country is in, currently over Brexit but with the looming threat of a second independence referendum, demonstrates rather well that massive changes bring massive headaches.

Few of us want more of this. If politicians are truly only there to serve the public, perhaps they might care to note this.

Dr Gerald Edwards,

Broom Road, Glasgow.

ALEX Salmond will be untroubled by the admonishments of the UK broadcasting regulator over whether viewers were misled over the provenance of tweets appearing in his first RT programme. Indeed his production company says Ofcom’s finding was “out of all proportion to this very minor matter”.

During the 2014 independence referendum campaign, Mr Salmond masterminded the production of the Scotland’s Future White Paper, which insiders have since revealed knowingly sought to mislead the people of Scotland over the costs and likely consequences of breaking away from the UK. He may imagine that if he could get away with that, anything that Ofcom could come up with would indeed be “minor” in comparison.

Keith Howell,

White Moss, West Linton, Peeblesshire.

THE Tory Government wanted to start the Parliamentary summer recess a week early; seven weeks of paid holidays not being enough. This, only a few days after Tory MP’s complained their football watching was disrupted, while government business was being debated on the floor of the House. None of the rest of us can vote ourselves an extra paid holiday, nor do normal people get time off to watch sport during their working day.

The Tories are obviously split from top to bottom with their 40-year-old civil war over the EU, fine, we understand that. Many people are conflicted over this. But when they can no longer concentrate on the “day job” of governing the country, then its time they left office. They are not fit for purpose.

GR Weir,

17 Mill Street, Ochiltree.

YOUR correspondent Professor Ian Brown (Letters, July 14) is quite mistaken when he attributes the success of the Croatia football team to the independence of that country, and goes on to use it as an analogy for wider success.

Leaving aside Croatia's tragic history of ethnic cleansing, Prof Brown may be correct that "determination, self-confidence, stamina and skill" was the difference between Croatia and England. However, those qualities are more likely to have been gained by players being engaged in better and bigger leagues in Italy, Spain, Germany and the English Premier League. In contrast, England's players are confined to their own league, sometimes not even as regulars.

The message is that the bigger the stage, the higher the level of of achievement – which is what those of us who support unions at all levels have said all along. In contrast, the Brexiters and the SNP would diminish the UK and Scotland respectively by seeking to sever ties with the unions which can benefit us so greatly.

Peter A Russell,

87 Munro Road, Jordanhill, Glasgow.