The latest round of letters on Brexit have again focused on how the issue still divides the nation.

The simple way of avoiding this whole mess would have been not to join the EU in the first place. Instead of creating a political union, the nations of Europe could have struck free trade deals and opted into individual treaties on a voluntary basis for environmental issues etc. What would have been wrong with that?

The only reason this evolutionary path wasn’t adopted is the EU didn’t want its values to be voluntary, it wanted to impose them by stealth and acquire political power for itself.

To unite the nation again we need something political that we all agree on. Suppose Donald Trump offered us a free trade deal, on condition we also sign up to the US constitution? The right to bear arms, privatising of healthcare and having to take a share of every illegal caught crossing the Mexican border?

That would be sufficiently outrageous to put us all on the same side again and tell him, no deal.

Dr Scott Marmion, Woodthorpe, York

Time we learned to make our own sandwiches

Supermarket bosses are starting to worry about the availability of fresh food after our new Brexit deadline of October 31.

Their concern for our food security will be tempered by the knowledge that fresh and chilled foods are also some of their most profitable categories.

Any gaps in their shelves will directly affect their own financial health.

Longer term, it would also be catastrophic for the multi-billion-pound convenience food industry if, post Brexit, we got back into the habit of making our own sandwiches.

David Farnsworth,

Old Orchard, Haxby

Will Boris accept the blame for no deal?

If Boris ‘British Trump’ Johnson crashes us out without a deal will he accept the blame for the inevitable chaos that follows?

This situation, unlike the global financial crisis of 2008, will be entirely self-inflicted by the Tories.

Can people not see that Putin and Trump enthusiastically support Brexit to destroy Great Britain and Europe?

P Dawson, Fordlands Road,Fulford, York