AT the fishers’ protest in London, one truck had a banner saying: “We voted for Brexit!” How dumb can one be!

They must know the fish are happy to be Brits again! These dumb fools fell for the hype! What is the point of catching oodles of fish etc if you cannot sell it, and yet the EU boats in the agreement (or sell-out by Westminster) can fish happily and not face barriers getting the product to market?

The “common fisheries” policy is still intact, something the UK fisheries minister had not noticed, in fact she never even read the draft, and the Scots fishers are worse off out of it than in now!

READ MORE: Seafood protesters fined after protest over Brexit chaos for fishing industry

They are truly gutted, but will they draw the obvious conclusions? If they keep voting Tory and Unionist, one must conclude they are utterly stupid! That is a sad comment to make, but they fell for the Unionist Vow, were shafted by the Tory-Ukip lies and now overnight their livelihoods are truly all at sea, yet they cannot take advantage! And in case they forget, Scotland voted to remain in the EU.

Michel Barnier said there would be “consequences” from Brexit. Out of the EU, one cannot expect the same benefits as with membership. The EU fishermen do not have barriers in taking their agreed catches to the EU market, but Scots fishermen do!

Surely, the folly of the deal agreed by the UK government must sink in. You fishermen are not going to “prosper mightily”, just the Tory chumocracy are! And remember, Labour at Westminster voted for the agreement too!

Enjoy the Union Jackery! It has "broad shoulders” but nothing else. Just padding!

John Edgar
Kilmaurs

BORIS Johnson and his Conservative and Unionist government may not wish to celebrate Burns’s birthday, but just in case let me offer them a poem to read and study: To A Mouse (On turning her up in her nest with the plough, November 1785).

Johnson’s disaster of “Getting Brexit Done” without a detailed examination of the economic consequences or even concern for the hardships caused to so many is reflected in:

“But, Mousie, thou art no the lane
In proving foresight may be vain
The best laid schemes o mice an men gang aft agley
An lea’e us nought but grief an pain for promised joy.”

Burns sees “grief and pain” from “best laid schemes”! What would he have said of the Unionist disaster of the Boris-Brexit?

READ MORE: Brexit has shown fishing communities are pawns of politicians' whims

He tells us in the same poem:

“Still thou are blest compared with me!
The present only toucheth thee;
But och! I backward cast my ee on prospects drear!
An forward tho I canna see, I guess and fear!”

Multiply the dire consequences of the Boris-Brexit in these days of the pandemic, and we see with startling clarity that Unionism can only offer the people of Scotland “prospects drear” in a “broken social Union”.

With the same political energy as Jimmy Reid when he declared “we are not rats”, let us remind ourselves we are no “cowrin, timrous beasties”!

Thom Cross
Carluke

DOUGLAS Adams, the now sadly deceased author of The Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy, would be laughing all the way to his home cloud if he were observing Brexit from the after-life.

Denial is impossible, even plausible deniability is beyond reason, but there are a few blinkered commentators who are not prepared to face up to the facts.

Yet it is just “teething problems” according to the UK’s Environment Secretary, ex-Ukipper George Eustace, and Foreign Secretary Dom Raab. Under Secretary of State for UK Gov in Scotia, MP for Banff & Buchan David Duguid MP, when asked when will “it” be fixed, replied “how long is a piece of string?”

READ MORE: David Duguid under fire for throwing Scottish fishing 'under a Brexit bus' to BBC

Fishing and processing were always a major “sticking point” for four or more years since 2016, and should have been resolved back in June 2020, but as Johnson did not want to divulge his inability to get a better deal, it was put into cold storage until December 24 2020, and it was hailed as a major success. This is termed “gaslighting” or spin, at it seeks to move blame from the UK to the EU and Scottish Government.

Our fishing industry will be severely affected by this Brexit deal. A quote from another Douglas Adams book seem appropriate: “So long and thanks for all of the fish.”

Alistair Ballantyne
Birkhill, Angus

IS there any point to Westminster’s Prime Minister’s Questions, asks Jim Taylor in his letter in Friday’s National, knowing full well the answer is no, none at all.

But what’s even worse is Scottish Questions in the Commons. Scottish Secretary Alister Jack uses this parliamentary time to broadcast a series of Tory speeches. No matter what the question is, he treats it as a prompt for a Tory/Unionist rant about how great Westminster is for Scotland and how bad the SNP are, mostly not even answering the question. What is the point of asking anything when it simply serves as an introduction to a Tory speech?

And why, when English Votes for English Laws prevents Scottish MPs from taking part in debates that pertain to English matters only, are English MPs allowed in the chamber when it’s clearly a Scottish-only affair? MPs from the deep south of England get up with questions that often start with, “Does my honourable friend agree with me that…?” and then go on to put Scotland down while supposedly asking a question. This tees up another speech from Union Jack.

Scottish Questions in the Commons is treated as a free anti-Scottish pro-Union diatribe, a total farce. Scottish MPs should boycott this nonsense as it so obviously works against them.

Iain McClafferty
Livingston