IAIN Macwhirter wants us to fight for a People's Vote on our membership of the EU ("Sturgeon must now fight for a People's Vote on the EU", The Herald, July 18). Perhaps I could remind him that we had a People's Vote two years ago when the people of the UK voted to leave the EU.

We would not be where we are today if the result of the vote had been accepted by the MPs of all parties and they had got behind the Government in its approach to Brussels. The non-acceptance of the result by MPs played into the hand of the EU negotiators and allowed them to take a harder line than they might have if dealing with a united opposition.

I was going to ask Mr Macwhirter what the difference is between a referendum and a People's Vote. Perhaps I can suggest one. A People's Vote is when you have lost a referendum vote, want another vote and feel that a People's Vote sounds better than admitting you are a bad loser by asking for a second referendum.

J S Morrison,

1 Arran Drive,

Kirkintilloch.

TREVOR Rigg ( Letters, July 18 ) wants the referendum decision to leave the EU to be revisited in another referendum which he considers desirable, fully justified and democratic. This is despite his acknowledgement that “the voters are by majority Leavers" which surely contradicts his justification for another referendum. Also, I cannot agree with him that “MPs are by majority Remainers" if by this he means they are intent on remaining in the EU. Obviously some are , but not the majority. Whilst there are arguments amongst MPs about the terms we should seek in the ongoing negotiations with the EU, the vast majority have accepted the instruction to leave the EU given by the voters in the referendum and have voted accordingly in Commons debates, for example to trigger Article 50 and for the EU Withdrawal Bill. That is democracy in action.

As to his dismissal of using a General Election to revisit the present decision to leave the EU, if and when that was called it would be open to any or all parties to stand on a manifesto commitment to apply to rejoin the EU, and their success or failure would reflect the voters' appetite for that at the time. That also would be democracy in action.

Alan Fitzpatrick,

10 Solomon’s View,

Dunlop.

CALLS for a second EU referendum, whether on Brexit terms or as a result of the Leave campaign rule breaking, will not resolve the fundamental fault lines that exist in the UK Tory and Labour parties.

This was illustrated when four or five Labour MPs voted with Jacob Rees-Mogg and let Theresa May off the hook, thus allowing her to hand the UK negotiations over to Brexit extremists leaving us with a hard Brexit without any parliamentary scrutiny ("Relief for May as Government defeats customs union amendment by juts six votes", The Herald, July 18). They were joined by all the Tory MPs from Scotland in opposing a customs union or Norway-type "soft" Brexit and ignored their constituents' vote to Remain.

Liberal Democrat claims of competence were destroyed when their two leading MPs, Vince Cable and Tim Farron failed to appear at Westminster for the knife-edge hard Brexit vote on July 16. Also, no Labour, Tory or LibDem MP supported SNP amendments to allow our Scottish Parliament a say on trade deals and tariffs involving devolved issues.

The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has warned that Westminster austerity measures must continue for 50 years to rescue UK finances and, as the Growth Commission highlighted, under UK control Scotland is under-performing which will continue to be the case unless a change is made. The Growth Commission ignored oil revenues in its ultra-cautious proposals, yet there is at least 20 billion barrels of oil to be recovered, which at $75 a barrel would bring $1,500 billion into the Scottish economy.

Therefore Scotland has nothing to fear and everything to gain through taking the opportunity to escape Westminster lunacy by voting for self-government in a meaningful referendum.

Mary Thomas,

Watson Crescent,

Edinburgh.

JUST who is running the country?

Anna Soubry MP and I rarely see eye-to-eye but we do on Brexit. Her attack this week on fellow Conservative MPs as being insulated from the outcome of Brexit by “gold-plated pensions and inherited wealth” was spot on. The fact that the voting pattern of many of her colleagues in subsequent divisions appears to have been motivated by self-interest in retaining their own jobs is ironic in light of the UK job losses predicted post-Brexit. Her observation that HM Government was being manipulated and held to ransom by a small cohort of right-wing ideologues none of whom is on the breadline is also highly pertinent given the impending changes in EU tax-law deliberately aimed at cutting tax evasion and tax avoidance by the rich.

I lost faith in politics and the current crop of professional politicians some time ago, the recently proven financial shenanigans by pro-Brexit groups which seem to have gone unnoticed by Cabinet ministers involved in the campaign and Boris Johnson’s antics and blatant disregard for Parliamentary regulations and protocol are just recent confirmations that there is rot at the heart of our democratic process. That the anodyne Tim Farron can blithely say he missed a crucial vote this week because he didn’t think that the result would be close is a disgrace even if his absence was “approved” ("Farron sorry for missing vote", The Herald, July 18). I note there was an attendance fee of £5 to attend the meeting he addressed, doesn’t sound very liberal or inclusive to me: I wonder where the money went?

Stop the world, I want to get off.

David J Crawford,

85 Whittingehame Court,

1300 Great Western Road,

Glasgow.

ELECTION expenses were introduced to stop rich people "buying seats" and those found guilty of having done so would forfeit their Parliamentary seat.

It now appears, for referenda at least (but who knows), that these rules are superfluous and to the victor the spoils ("Police probe Leave chiefs after electoral law broken", The Herald, July 18).

I can only imagine what will happen at the next Scottish independence referendum.

Alan McKinney,

10 Beauchamp Road,

Edinburgh.