I am a great fan of what I like to call the ‘urban squalor’ genre of detective thriller.

Among the staples of these stories are the dark corners of industrial decay: the echoing deserted manufacturing halls replete with dripping water from leaky roofs, discarded paperwork from some long-dead enterprise and the skeletal remains of obscure, rotting and discarded machinery.

These are the perfect metaphor for a life lived in usefulness and discarded (like the inevitable white sheet-shrouded corpse) prematurely, all encompassed in a massive, multi-storied concrete coffin.

But where do they find suitable settings?

In Sunderland an optimistic and overly enthusiastic native spreads an expansive arm across the impressive, in size if nothing else, Nissan-emblazoned factory frontage and declares: ‘Look at the size of it, it’s massive, how can they close this down?’.

Let’s hope the final irony of Sunderland’s enthusiasm for exit isn’t one day the use of that same expansive arm to show their grandchildren how vast the now derelict Nissan factory was.

Still, it might not all be bad news. Series 10 of ‘Luther’ has to be filmed somewhere.

Richard Bowen,

Farrar Street, York

Brexit lifeboats and ferries are cancelled

IT was the perfect metaphor for the blind chaos of Brexit: awarding a £13.2 million ferry service contract to a company that had no ships and had never run a ferry service. Now the government has admitted its folly and the contract for non-existent ferries is scrapped.

When Donald Tusk said there was a special place in hell for those who had pushed for Brexit ‘without even a sketch of a plan’ he was giving voice to a sentiment held by millions of Britons. It is the lack of any form of plan that is costing us all billions of pounds.

Without a realistic and viable plan there is no deal and reciting ‘Brexit means Brexit’ is meaningless. Even to Theresa May.

For two years other EU leaders have repeatedly asked the UK government ‘what do you want?’ No one knows. The House of Commons agrees only on one thing: leaving with no deal would be a disaster.

Boris, Rees-Mogg, Farage, Fox, Dyson and Davis continue chuntering their plucky bravado as they frogmarch us toward the cliff edge (while sneakily moving their business interests overseas). But still none of these rich gentlemen advances a Brexit plan.

And now the ferries and lifeboats are cancelled.

Christian Vassie,

Blake Court,

Wheldrake, York

Correcting errors in reader’s EU letter

I’D like to correct the errors in Peter Rickaby’s letter (Tusk won’t get his own way with insults, February 11).

Donald Tusk is not an unelected president and he didn’t insult ordinary people who voted to leave as Peter claims.

He was elected by 27 of the 28 heads of EU members - including Theresa May. And he justifiably condemned those leave leaders who failed to plan properly.

Dan Staples,

Scarcroft Road, York

Tusk reveals true feelings of the EU

Thank you Donald Tusk. Your statement has at last shown the true beliefs that the EU really think of the UK. March 29 cannot come too soon. Good riddance!

Geoff Robb,

Hunters Close,

Dunnington, York

Is Nigel Farage back on ballot papers?

IF Nigel Farage really is back I will not have to write ‘none of the above’ on my ballot papers.

A V Martin,

Westfield Close,

Wigginton,York