IN the distorted mind of Boris Johnson I am sure he is convinced that he has pulled off a Brexit agreement timed to perfection.
Who will ever forget that the agreement was signed on Christmas Eve? What are the chances the agreement will ever be subjected to the scrutiny normally essential in the democratic process? I am sure that the date is neither accidental nor fortuitous but was always part of a strategy concocted long ago with his adviser Cummings.
I am convinced Johnson will know little of the detail of the 1200 pages of the agreement and care even less. His only concern is that in achieving it he will see himself as being elevated to the status of a great statesman. What nonsense. It matters little to him that misery will follow for millions of the people of this country. It matters little to him that he has reduced the democratic process to nothing other than a mere rubber stamp.
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An agreement has been signed which openly ignores the declared democratic will of the Scottish people. An agreement which will not even be given the opportunity to be discussed at Westminster let alone Holyrood. An agreement which could determine the future of our people for the next 50 years.
In just over four months the people of Scotland will have the opportunity to give their verdict on what has just happened. I am sure the message which will be given is that Scotland wants and deserves much more than an egotist’s ravings.
Johnson has just shown he cares little for the democratic process. When the voice of the people of Scotland is once more underlined, will he listen?
It must therefore be made clear to him that ignoring it will have consequences.
George Kay
Burntisland
DOES the news that a “‘Massive sell-out’ in Brexit deal sees Scotland’s fishermen betrayed by Tories” (The National, December 27) really come as a surprise to anybody outside of the industry?
The fishing industry is the gift that keeps on giving to the Tories: sold out almost half a century ago when the UK joined the EC and by successive UK Governments ever since, yet convinced that it’s all the fault of the SNP Scottish Government that has been in power for little over a decade.
READ MORE: ‘Massive sell-out’ in Brexit deal sees Scotland's fishermen betrayed by Tories
The Scottish Government has never taken part in UK/EU fishing negotiations, in fact the SNP is the only UK party that has not been in the UK Government during all that time.
From the beginning of the Brexit Monopoly game the fishing community was Boris Johnson’s “get out of jail free” card.
If the UK left with no deal then we had seen Britannia with her back to the wall, willing to take it on the chin rather than betray the trust of our heroic, oilskin-clad fishermen who put to sea in their little boats in all weathers to put food on our tables.
If there was a deal then sod the remote fishing communities, they are only 0.05% of the UK economy and 0.01% of the voters. Promise them jam in five-and-a-half years, they will fall for it again and everyone outside of Scotland will forget about them by the time of the next General Election anyway.
Boris Johnson and other ministers have regularly visited Scotland’s fishing ports and stressed the importance of the fishing industry during these negotiations. If reports on the last day were correct then the final release of the completed UK/EU trade agreement was delayed for several hours to reconcile figures because the EU and UK negotiating teams had been using different data sets on fishing during the negotiations. This revealed that fishing negotiations had not been carried out in any great depth, contrary to what we had been told so often.
Only the leaders of the various fishing organisations are surprised by the outcome of Brexit for the fishing industry.
John Jamieson
South Queensferry
THERE was an agreement at the last minute between the UK and the EU, but unfortunately a sheet was lost in this laundry. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has decided that the UK will withdraw from the EU’s university student exchange programme, known as the EU Erasmus programme. I consider this decision to be very negative for the whole of Europe because Erasmus was a means of overcoming the chauvinism of states which sometimes have no respect for multilingualism and the right to be different in the face of the imposition of uniformity which is very reductionist and often anti-European.
Josep M Loste
Catalonia, Spain
LIKE many people, I felt a huge relief that the Tories have avoided a No-Deal Brexit. But reading a list of the main agreements, it seemed to consist only of things we have lost and things that (thank goodness) will continue, though usually in a reduced way. What have we gained?
Precisely nothing.
Of course Britnats will claim they’ve taken back control, which translates as much greater control over us in Scotland, unless we stop it. We have one more chance, in May, as long as we’re not blinded by complacency, fear and false promises. We must seize that chance.
Robert Fraser
Edinburgh
IF you want to know what the media landscape will look like after Scottish independence, have a butchers at Boxing Day’s Irish
Daily Mail. Gone is the jingoist English nationalism, gone is the triumphalism of UK editions over Brexit, gone is the boke-inducing Johnson sycophancy, gone are the Union jacks. The paper is almost unrecognisable. If nothing else, independence would be worthwhile if only to escape the daily tripe.
Mike Herd
Highland
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