A WIDE range of views - as always - in Thursday’s letters page (Letters, January 17).

After watching recent debates I have to agree with A V Martin that our politicians are incapable of running the country.

Geoff Robb suggests we should use business leaders, not politicians, to negotiate our exit from the EU, but regardless of who leads our negotiations the EU holds all the cards.

If we’ve decided to leave it’s naive to believe that we can hold on to the advantages of membership. And those billions we’ll have to pay amount to less than £10 billion per year, pretty insignificant compared to an annual UK budget of over £600 billion.

Yes, Wendy Blanchard, we do import and export goods but after Brexit we will no longer trade freely with the EU countries; our goods will be made uncompetitive by tariffs levied at the border.

Customs union means free trade. When we leave the customs union we will be on the wrong side of the tariff barriers from the EU and from the 68 other countries that EU members have trade agreements with.

Yes we can grow our own food, although nearly 50 per cent is currently imported. It will take years to change the highly technical supply chains and the long-term contracts which feed our nation.

Did any of us know any of this when we voted in 2016?

If it’s truly what people want why are some people so opposed to giving voters the opportunity to confirm that decision in another referendum?

And yes, Peter Rickaby, let’s send some politicians to the Tower.

My number one candidate is David Cameron for getting us into this mess.

Anthony Day,

Lastingham Terrace, York

Deal or no deal - just get us out now

There should never be another vote on Brexit. The original vote took place almost three years ago and the majority of those who voted, voted to leave the EU.

It is time all the argy-bargy ceased and everyone stood together to just get us out, instead of a few egotistical people in Westminster going against what was voted for.

The thing that has to be done now is to get out. Deal or no deal.

Get us out now and deal later.

This whole situation has now reached the point of being ridiculous.

The rest of the world must be having a good laugh at the UK. Now let us have the last laugh and sort the situation without any further delay.

Should a second vote be forced upon us, it begs the question that if we don’t like the result of a future general election, can we all shout out that we want another vote and keep on shouting until we get the result we want?

Janet S Kitchen-Cooper,

Ashley Park Road, York