MRS May still believes in fairies, buried in her English Home Counties Conservative Party values. Six years in the “dog kennel” at the Home Office, obsessed by immigration numbers, she carries on as PM with the same obsession. What is it about Mrs May that she so distrusts people who are not like her and her English Home Counties look-alikes?

Mr Corbyn will be happy now that Venezuela is back in the news. Forget Brexit and the UK – campaigning to protect Venezuela from “Yankee imperialism” will be a breath of fresh air for him. Our local MP, David Mundell, will follow Mrs May faithfully like a puppy eager to please and be liked so that a reward may eventually come his way – a peerage perhaps? Once a devout supporter of the EU, he abandons all to support Mrs May and her mantra “The Will of The British People” – by the narrow margin of 52-48, even though this is grossly distorted because English votes account for 80% of any UK referendum. Don’t ever forget the vote of the SCOTTISH people, by 62-38, was to stay in the EU.

Scotland is screwed in any Brexit discussions because, unlike the DUP, Scotland has no meaningful leverage with Mrs May. We really are “North Britain” in her eyes, or maybe just an English colony.

I lament the lost opportunities that will result from our leaving the EU against the will of the Scottish people. I lament the lost opportunities for our young people of all talents to be able to travel, study, work and develop their skills and contacts throughout Europe.

I lament the fact that thousands of EU citizens resident in Scotland for many years, working and contributing in all manner of ways are now fearful of the “knock on the door”. This is exemplified by the shameful UK Home Office desire to deport to Iran an elderly couple who have lived, worked and brought up a family in Edinburgh for the last 45 years. Appeals to stay were rejected in 2012 by Mrs May, as part of her “hostile environment” policy. This is inhumane on any definition and shows a shocking lack of empathy and plain decency which doesn’t befit a vicar’s daughter, as she is so ready to define herself.

Scotland throughout its history has always looked to continental Europe through political and cultural alliances. Is all this to be lost because of the imbalance of population percentage in the UK? Is this a fair representation of Mrs May’s “Precious Union” when it is so loaded towards the English majority?

I myself am English born and have lived and worked in Scotland for the last 20 years. Most of my English relatives support leaving the EU because in general they don’t like “foreigners” and “don’t want being told what to do by the EU”, and “we pay in and get nothing out” and “they all come over here to swing the lead and milk the system”. Reasoned argument and factual rebuttal of these claims are dismissed; they just aren’t interested in facts, only their “gut” instincts.

If Scotland thinks and wishes a different debate and outcome, then there may be only one way to forge a new future. And this will, in time, propel the movement to create an independent Scotland. If England and the UK refuses to include Scotland as a real and meaningful equal partner then this will, in my opinion, be an inevitable consequence of Mrs May’s folly.

Mrs May in my opinion is not a prisoner of Jacob Rees-Mogg and the English nationalists, but a true believer as a natural English home counties conservative, with a built in fear and dislike of anything “foreign” and a disdain for poor people. At some point, sooner rather than later, a Scottish politician has to be bold and declare that independence is the only way for Scotland to prosper, otherwise the vision will just evaporate.

We surely can’t expect the current Westminster chaos to provide the way forward. This is negative, and in any case if history tells us anything it is that the English conservative party will always find a way to stay in power. So, a positive case has to be made, professionally, yes without fear and with controlled emotion, but with a strong fiscal and social platform.

Who is going to be bold?

Michael Clarke
Langholm