Boycott French food if we have a no-deal Brexit

THE result of the Salzburg Eu leaders summit, and the recent comment by the French Minister for European Affairs that a nodeal Brexit will be better than a bad deal for the French, provide a wonderful opportunity to show the member states exactly what they will miss if we leave the Eu without a deal.

As a preliminary test of how things might change, we simply stop purchasing produce and goods from one of the member states. As President Macron is perhaps the most vocal opponent of the uK, then we should immediately cease purchasing anything French.

It may upset a few of the snobs in Whitehall who would miss their cognac, but who cares.

If the French took umbrage and blockaded the Channel ports, then we would have to switch everything to the Dutch and Belgian ports.

If the Dutch and Belgian governments then joined the French, it would not be long before the business leaders of the Eu started knocking a few political heads together, because such a situation will not benefit anyone — least of all the Eu.

If the bureaucrats in Brussels had been more receptive to the minimal and reasonable changes that David Cameron had been looking for, then we would not be in this position today.

RoBERT BISHoP, Billingshurst, w. Sussex.

Chequers betrayal

IT MAY be all right to wax lyrical about the Prime Minister’s performance at the Tory Conference (Comment), but the country didn’t vote for a comedienne.

Behind Theresa May’s upbeat speech, there continues to lie the spectre of the Chequers plan.

One suspects very few people have read the proposals in detail — these make alarming reading. The ‘ common rulebook’, for example, means that the uK would have to obey Eu rules, without being able to vote on them.

It is unlikely the Eu would accept even an amended deal, accusing the uK of ‘cherry-picking’.

We should recognise that the Chequers plan is exactly as Boris Johnson portrayed it. The suggestion that he is doing it to further his own leadership ambitions is to ignore the fact that leaving the Eu will be a million miles from the expectations of the majority who voted in the referendum.

HUgH SAwYER, Basingstoke, Hants. I HAvE my doubts as to Boris’s suitability for Prime Minister. But the contention that he resigned, having endorsed the Chequers agreement, just to improve his leadership chances is unfair.

Boris, the then Brexit Secretary David Davis and the majority of the Cabinet were kept in the dark about these proposals until the last minute, giving no chance for any serious thinking about their suitability. After a few days’ contemplation, Boris was quite entitled to resign honourably. ADRIAN JACkAmAN,

Stonehouse, glos.

Real money-laundering

FurTHEr to the bugs and germs that lurk on loose change (Mail), I recently returned from a trip to the u.S.

In San Francisco, staff at the Westin St Francis Hotel in union Square have been washing in strong detergent every dollar, dime, nickel and cent that their customers spend at the hotel since 1938, when they first employed a full-time coin washer.

Coin washing using a burnishing machine was introduced at the hotel to prevent ladies from soiling their white gloves when handling money. These were in vogue in the Thirties and Forties.

‘Money laundering’ continues at the hotel to this day. They believe they are the only hotel in the world to employ a coin washer. IAIN CAmERoN wILLIAmS,

Edinburgh.

That’s rich from RBS

THE boss of royal Bank of Scotland, ross McEwan, says the uK could be tipped into recession if there is a no-deal Brexit (Mail).

Didn’t rBS, with other reckless banks, plunge the world into recession and need to be bailed out by British taxpayers in 2008, who still hold almost two- thirds of its shares? This would be a good time for Mr McEwan to concentrate on his day job instead of making up Project Fear scare stories.

mIkE DURAND, Penzance, Cornwall.