Dear Mrs May

Thank you for your letter, kind of you to tell us why we need to support your “ deal” with Europe.

Of course we shouldn’t really need one as the Referendum in 2016 was only advisory so a responsible Government would have avoided further dividing a splintered country. But you didn’t take that course of action.You followed what you saw as a popular course and shredded your own objection to Brexit for personal political gain .

As a Home Secretary you told me that as a citizen of the world I was a citizen of nowhere. It its ironic that you denounce Scottish Nationalism while giving succour to bigots.

You distance yourself from this of course, the leafy streets of the privileged south would find that offensive, and that just wouldn’t do. But Theresa, you see words matter, and yours are pursuing you . But I won’t allow you to devalue my values with a worthless soundbite.

You call us to “ unite “ behind your deal and put differences behind us yet the deal ignores the views of Scotland and is supported by a Scottish Secretary who seems incapable of keeping faith with the principle he put in writing. He won’t be alone however as Ruth Davidson seems equally incapable of following her stated principles with the logical action they require. We should see Tories resigning yet where are their letters?

The 62% of Scots of whom I am a proud and convinced member did not buy that Europe was the key to the problems we are told we have, and the 38%, now furnished with fact as opposed to propaganda driven fiction are increasingly seeing this nonsense for what it is . For Scotland, immigration is part of the solution not the problem. I get that some parts of the UK like the Northeast for instance struggle with unemployment and a lack of investment but you of all people should put them right on this? It was your Party under Mrs Thatcher that destroyed traditional industry there with no concern for the social fragmentation that would follow. I know, I was there.

My friend says I should feel sorry for you because you are under so much pressure . I think it was Freud who said that repeatedly doing the same thing with the same negative results was a sign of insanity. The political insanity we now face seems a product of continually refusing to face up to the fact that we will be better financially inside the EU rather than outside, a fact you have assiduously avoided confirming for obvious reasons. In terms of feeling sorry for your stress perhaps the reference point here should be the the stress of people of the Windrush Generation, immigrants whose invaluable service has been failed on your watch.Shame on you.

So far as “respecting the democratic decision of the British People” can I quote Andrew Marr? “Don’t try to patronise me, I am as much of a democrat as you are.” Your view of what is democratic is deliberately selective . The 62% of Scots who voted to remain in Europe are also democrats yet certainly where I live we are represented by a Conservative MP who believes he was elected to ignore the democratic decision his own constituents made on Europe . Don’t talk to me about democracy . Democracy is process not an event, democracy evolves, it is not static. Democracy is encompassing and inclusive, not selective.

So your colleagues in Parliament have choices . Deal, No Deal, People’s Vote ? For the sake of those not in Scotland, I hope it is the last. They deserve the opportunity to reverse this foolishness.

Scotland has other choices and your activities this last 18 months have made an excellent case for independence . I think the High Tories of the past would blush at the degree to which Scotland’s voice has been ignored . Your Government had an opportunity to speak to the people of Scotland in a way that could have captured their imagination, instead it has driven a wedge between our Nations .

Your letter defines your legacy and this is my reply .

The future may include Brexit but the future of Scotland will be Independent.

By the way, I am English, in Scotland, and this is the future I chose .

Yours Steve Sloan, Stranraer.