Re your editorial (The Guardian view on Brexit and Covid: a nation on the brink, 21 December), there is little doubt that enthusiasts for Brexit, and many of the electorate they convinced to vote for it, were anxious about the future. Climate change, shrinking middle class jobs, house prices and so on, thinking that Britain might be better off going it alone, unencumbered by the EU. Covid has demonstrated the opposite. When things become difficult, it is better if neighbours face problems together.
Olly Cooper
Winterton-on-Sea, Norfolk
• Should the new strain of the Covid virus not be named the Brexit virus, as it has successfully closed down our borders?
Dimitri Kissoff
Stockport, Greater Manchester
• Your article (Johnson appeals to French president but freight Covid ban remains, 21 December) says France “failed to lift its ban on freight and passengers from the UK even as Boris Johnson personally appealed to President Emmanuel Macron to put aside his ‘anxiety’ over the mutant coronavirus strain”. Oh, please, France didn’t “fail”; it was Boris who failed to persuade Macron to risk further infections in France to keep us supplied with lettuces.
Phil Wells
Hadleigh, Suffolk
• Most unusually, the main national TV channels on Monday night here in France led with a report on an event taking place in Britain, namely the French decision to close its borders. Given the delay in informing the EU about the new Covid variant, the recent threats pertaining to the deployment of gunboats and the perception of Boris Johnson as a mendacious clown, it is hardly surprising that Macron is reluctant to heed exhortations to “put aside anxiety” in relation to allowing the British Covid variant to run unchecked through his country.
Dominica Jewell
Bazoches-au-Houlme, France
• I note that supermarkets are “looking into alternative transport for products sourced from Europe”, given the current issues affecting road transport through Dover (UK supermarkets predict shortage of lettuce, broccoli and citrus fruit, 21 December). What about using the Channel tunnel rail link to actually carry trains, instead of it being largely a rolling motorway for road vehicles? The number of “paths” assigned to railway freight services have never been fully taken up since the tunnel was opened in 1994 – a serious policy failure by the UK and French governments.
Aside from getting our groceries delivered, this would also be better for the environment than having thousands of trucks wearing out and congesting our road network.
Philip Bisatt
Taunton, Somerset
• The “misnamed Airport Cafe” in Sellindge, Kent (Lorry drivers fear being stuck in Dover for Christmas as borders close, 21 December), was named after the nearby Ashford airport from which, in the late 1960s and 1970s, Dan-Air Skyways ran combined coach and air trips from London to Paris via Beauvais airport in northern France.
Most passengers travelled on the long-defunct one-year visitor’s passport, obtainable at any post office. In 1968, a weekend in Paris, including travel, transfers and two nights in a two-star hotel, cost about £25. The airport closed in 1984 and is now an industrial estate.
Brian Ferris
Tunbridge Wells, Kent
