The Liberal Democrats oppose another Scottish independence vote – it’s hypocrisy of the highest order

Liberal Democrat opposition to the holding of a second referendum on Scottish independence is more than a little bizarre.

While the party calls for a second EU vote on the one hand, it then notes opposition to the holding of a second independence referendum on the other. This would be the case even if the SNP on its own or with the Greens win an outright majority in the Scottish parliament elections on a platform of holding another such vote.

The logic that somehow people should be allowed another say on Brexit but not on Scottish independence smacks of hypocrisy of the highest order.

It appears that the Liberal Democrats are neither liberal or democratic.

Alex Orr
Edinburgh

Chuka Umunna is right to commit the Liberal Democrats to taking the UK back into the EU. I would vote for full spectrum Europeanisation too – metrication, the euro, ever closer union, Schengen conformance, European armed forces etc.

Someone should have taken Guy Verhofstadt to one side at the Liberal Democrat conference and recommended that he get the EU to officially classify any Boris-led Brexit as “provisional” until after the next general election and/or second referendum. This would simplify re-entry.

Steve Ford
Haydon Bridge

The wrong solution to Brexit

I have to agree with yesterday’s letter-writer Trevor Fisher that the Lib Dems are committing an error by not sticking to their trenchant and democratic fight for a second referendum, which they have maintained through thick and thin.

Their gung-ho policy of abandoning Brexit altogether by revoking Article 50 is of a piece with their “Bollocks to Brexit” mantra. This will alienate serious Leavers who have subsequently changed their minds and wanted another vote to register this change of heart. This policy is not democratic and is not worthy of a party which is regaining the political light. We will never lay to rest this very divisive issue in such an arrogant fashion.

Judith A Daniels
Great Yarmouth

Blame the fanatics

I have some sympathy for Neil Coppendale’s statement in the last sentence of his letter. My mother and father didn’t serve in the Second World War, nor my grandfathers in the First World War, to see the United Kingdom become increasingly racist and xenophobic. Nor did they serve to see the rise of fascism in this country, let alone to see an MP murdered by a Britain First sympathiser.

I would like to remind Mr Coppendale that those responsible for the current democratic deficit are the ERG and their fanatical “do or die” sub-group known as the Spartans.

Michael Lewis
Bath

John Rentoul has long been my go-to writer for truth and common sense. However, in my opinion, his latest article is wide of the mark.

David Cameron’s tenure at No 10 has left this country facing disaster. His inability to control his party has led a once Great Britain into a downward spiral to ruin. Mr Cameron didn’t have the guts to argue against an unwanted and unnecessary referendum, which was bad enough, but to wimp out before the job was done is simply unforgivable.

In giving him any credit for his time as prime minister or to publish the start of “whitewashes” in credible publications like The Independent is merely to give Cameron a veneer of acceptability that he craves – undeservedly.

Mr Rentoul, your article reinforces my view of free speech and just how blessed we are in Great Britain to be able to disagree openly without going to jail or worse. I look forward to your next missive with high expectations.

Keith Poole
Basingstoke

Dirty words

So, our prime minister reads poetry to help him sleep. Does he use the self-scribed poem about the president of Turkey having sex with a goat, or does he prefer something slightly less highbrow?

Maurice Raphael
Heighington