Fed up with rhubarb from the EU team

I seem to detect a similar naivete on the part of M Barnier and his Remain allies when they list all the things of which we will be deprived if we actually leave the EU instead of Mrs May’s pretend departure.

Instead of stockpiling EU food etc perhaps we should just lay aside the £90 billion we currently overspend in Europe, in addition to our budget contribution, and use it to buy from more deserving and needy countries.

I wonder how the EU farmers and manufacturers feel about having their interests subordinated to a political shibboleth that more and more of them are abandoning anyway.

AV Martin,

Westfield Close,

Wigginton,York

We must abandon the folly of Brexit

Unable to present any coherent plan, Government ministers are abandoning the pretence of seeking an EU deal that will leave the UK better off after Brexit. There is no good Brexit.

Like a child caught being naughty, new Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt turns to a desperate defence: blame someone else. Blame the EU. But he takes us for fools; in case anyone has forgotten, the EU did not ask the UK to leave.

All agreements require the signatories to sign up to a set of rules: marriages, supermarket loyalty cards, insurance contracts, sporting tournaments, ports and airports, trade agreements and, yes, EU membership. No rules, no agreement. If we crash out without a deal how will food be imported? How will planes fly? And if we cannot negotiate a deal with our neighbours, with whom we have so much in common, how will we negotiate trade deals with nations further afield? Realistically, how long will it take? Ten years? Thirty?

No wonder businesses like Amazon worry about civil unrest, while others are leaving the UK. Even Rees-Mogg is sneakily moving his business to Ireland.

If we don’t want to end up like Greece we must accept reality and abandon this folly.

Christian Vassie,

Blake Court,

Wheldrake, York