HOW to make friends in the EU is far from Jeremy Hunt’s gaze. His rant “threatening “ to fight back is appalling. This must be the worst jingoistic outburst from a politician since 1900.

It must be getting hot under the collar in Toryland with Brexit in a siding at present and the clock ticking. The Foreign Secretary’s rant is nothing more than a reaction to not getting one’s own way. His “analogies” from faux British, also known as English, history to accentuate British, also known as English, exceptionalism and therefore a right to entitlement were irrelevant.

Somehow he omitted to mention the “peaceful” change that Westminster brought to its annexing colonies and Empire gained through wars, annexation and genocide; or, closer to home, the sedition trials of radicals for parliamentary reform resulting in hangings and transportation to the colonial gulags in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

At least he did not threaten to send a gunboat. What an embarrassment. The Government at Westminster has really hit a new low.

John Edgar,

1a Langmuir Quadrant,

Kilmaurs.

I DO not remember the words “food rationing” ever passing the lips of Boris Johnson and his fellow Brexiters (“Police alert to threat of mass food shortages after Brexit”, The Herald, September 28”.

Surely the alarming appointment of a minister to oversee the post-Brexit protection of food represents the straw that sunders the camel’s back. It is going to be difficult for those standing in a queue outside the distribution point for victuals to respond fulsomely to exhortations of “let’s hear it for Boris”.

I believe the case for an informed public being given the opportunity to vote again is now so compelling as to be irresistible.

Ian W Thomson,

38 Kirkintilloch Road,

Lenzie.

BORIS Johnson believes what he says (“Johnson repeatedly refuses to rule out leadership challenge to PM May”, The Herald, September 29). And he is right. When every other person is shivering in his shoes at the uncertainty of Brexit, themselves the cause of so much EU intransigence at smelling their fear, Mr Johnson reminds us of what we voted for: the return of our sovereignty, control of our own borders, fisheries, surrounding seas and every law that we live by and our well justified pride in our history and achievements that are second to none.

We did it because we saw we had no influence in the secret corridors of Brussels, no control whatever over our affairs. David Cameron got nowhere when he asked for aid to keep us in. The EU treated him and us like dirt, as if we do not matter at all. It has a well-developed secret system of power and we have been excluded.

We should have spent the least two years arranging to do without the EU by developing alternative places to trade and we should, by now, be ready just to leave. The EU, which has great need of our trade, because it sells more to us than we to them, would come to us with deals to satisfy its needs. If not, we would be ready.

The Irish border is not a problem for us, though it might be for the EU. We should treat the border as open and every port and aerodrome as a customs house. Any illicit cross border trade can be scrutinised.But that border stays where it is. The Prime Minister is right too. She has been trying to answer the fears of the Remainers but not at any price, as she has asserted forcefully. Mr Johnson reminds us that the recovery of our sovereignty is paramount.

William Scott,

23 Argyle Place, Rothesay.

BORIS Johnson’s latest Brexit proposal could work, given 70 years of readjustment). We just need a Canada-style prime minister: smart, charismatic, good looking, with principles, morals, an attention span longer than the next headline and a back bone.

So not Mr Johnson, obviously.

Amanda Baker,

Saughton Garden, Edinburgh.

RUTH Davidson brings some sound sense to Brexit goings-on (“Davidson: Johnson’s puritanical ideology won’t work”, The Herald, October 1), in commenting on the haiverings of the talking haystack, all chaff and no wheat, the MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip and former foreign secretary.

Put more simply: belt up, Boris.

R Russell Smith,

96 Milton Road, Kilbirnie.

THE Scottish Government (not Nicola Sturgeon) had a majority in parliament to pass a Bill for a second independence referendum.

Martin Redfern (Letters, September 29) rightly states that Theresa May vetoed that Bill. What he does not give is Mrs May’s response to the EU turning down her Chequers proposal. She insisted that the EU give respect to the UK position.

She said: “It is not acceptable to simply reject the other side’s proposals without detailed explanation and counter proposals.”

At no point has Mrs May respected Holyrood’s referendum decision; nor has she given any detailed reason for refusing Scotland another referendum (required due to the reneging on most of the promises made to Scotland in 2014); nor has she made any constitutional counter proposals. Indeed, her main response is to strip Holyrood of many of its devolved responsibilities and to show it, not as “the most powerful devolved parliament in the world”, but as without any genuine democratic authority at all.

A legislature whose 1,000 year old legal system and laws can be overturned at the whim of another legal jurisdiction is not worthy of the name of parliament.

GR Weir,

17 Mill Street, Ochiltree.

THE Scottish Liberal Democrats must be the only party that is slated for keeping its word. As Jim Lynch (Letters, September 28) accepts, in the wake of the 2007 election, “Alex Salmond thought they [Liberal Democrats] would deal with the SNP”, which was very presumptious considering that, before the poll, then-leader Nicol Stephen clearly said several times that LibDems would only work with the SNP if they dropped their insistence upon an independence referendum, as Mr Lynch correctly recalls.

Much to the consternation of many, the LibDems stuck to their guns and went into opposition.

Oh, and while Mr Lynch is absolutely correct that the 2007 administration lasted its full term of four years, he neglects to mention that this was only due to the enthusiastic support of the Tories, a fact most SNP supporters prefer to gloss over.

Councillor Jane Ann Liston,

Scottish Liberal Democrats,

5 Whitehill Terrace, Largo Road,

St Andrews.