I cannot understand why there is not more tangible opposition to the government’s approach to the Brexit negotiations (Brexit: Boris Johnson to override EU withdrawal agreement, 7 September).
During the referendum campaign many frontbench Conservative MPs said that there was no reason for the UK to leave the single market as a result of Brexit; some even said we would definitely stay in it. After the referendum result was announced, that idea was immediately thrown away. During the referendum campaign we were told that a trade deal with the EU would be “one of the easiest trade deals in history”, and yet we are now facing a no-deal Brexit – not, apparently, by default but as a more or less deliberate choice. Instead of having the frictionless trade that was promised, the government is belatedly spending billions of pounds creating lorry parks, recruiting customs officers and installing new IT systems.
Supporters of Brexit accuse “remoaners” of being undemocratic for not accepting the result of the 2016 referendum. But the Brexit being delivered bears no more than a superficial resemblance to that with which voters were wooed in 2016, and there is thus no democratic mandate for it any more than there would be for overturning the original vote.
If the Brexit that was promised turns out to be undeliverable, as I always thought it would, the prime minister should come out and say so, and either offer another referendum or call a general election. To have made those promises in the full knowledge that they would later be broken is an act of the utmost cynicism and dishonesty, and undermines our democracy.
Matthew Taylor
Hove, East Sussex
• It seems odd that a rightwing British government, ostensibly negotiating a trade deal with the EU, should throw its toys out of the pram over the issue of state aid to industry.
Most Conservative ministers are disciples of Margaret Thatcher, who abhorred the entire concept of government aid to industry. Her administration laid waste greatchunks of industry, disdaining intervention as “picking winners”.
Even if the current generation have experienced a Damascene conversion, how much state aid will they really be able to bestow in the cash-strapped world after Covid?
It feels more like a pretext for capsizing the talks, and British industry – far from enjoying a bonanza of state aid – will be left to live with the appalling consequences of crashing out without a deal.
Nick Harvey
Swanmore, Hampshire
• Regarding the government’s reported plan to undermine the EU withdrawal treaty, it would seem that our peerless prime minister would have us waive the rules as well as rule the waves.
Janet Rumsey
Cranbrook, Kent
• Johnson might like to pass himself off as all Churchillian, but reneging on deals and agreements was Hitler’s trademark.
Michael Rosenthal
Upper Brailes, Warwickshire
• When it comes to Brexit, it very much looks like perfidious Albion is living up to its name.
Roland White
Bognor Regis, West Sussex
• Shouldn’t we all have realised that Boris Johnson’s “oven-ready” deal was a turkey?
Michael Peel
London
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