IF WE SUFFER OVER BREXIT, IT WILL BE YOUR FAULT, BORIS
■ As the – totally avoidable – slow train crash that is the UK/EU post-Brexit trade talks appears about to hit the buffers, it is UK citizens and businesses that stand to lose the most.
We are familiar with the prime minister’s sound bites – ‘failure to reach a trade deal would be failure of statecraft’, ‘f*** business’, ‘oven-ready deal’, ‘this great nation will rise to the challenge of WTO rules’ – but unless, at the 11th hour, a deal can be struck, the buck will stop with Boris Johnson when queues along the M20, the plummeting pound and rising prices hit us in January.
It is the responsibility of government to look after its citizens and, after Covid, the biggest priority in 2020 is to get the trade deal. We know who to blame if this does not happen.
Julian Amey, London
■ Senior Tory MP Roger Gale says Mr Johnson (right) ought to follow David Cameron’s ‘honourable’ example and resign if EU trade talks fail (Metro, Tue).
He is suggesting it was honourable for the former PM to resign after losing the referendum. Really?
Cameron told us to get on and decide what we wanted and that he would take it forward. He then tried to fool us with his fake pre-referendum negotiations with and ‘concessions’ from the EU.
When he didn’t get what he wanted, he resigned. Honourable? He’s not even chlorine-washed chicken.
AG, Cleveland
■ Why is the government going for an all-or-nothing deal? If they reckon they have agreed 97 per cent of the negotiations with only a few sticking points left to be resolved, why not confirm what they agree on and leave the outstanding items for a future date rather than just throw the whole lot out because of that three per cent, with the possible disaster of a no deal?
SD Weber, Tunbridge Wells
■ Whether Brexit negotiations conclude as a deal or no deal, the government should make plans for us to once again become a manufacturing nation.
Our economy is doing badly during the pandemic, arguably due to us being too reliant on a service economy. Just observe the current hold-up at ports blamed on both the pandemic and Brexit, and how much of that is manufactured goods being imported, all of which we could make ourselves.
The manufacturing sector would provide skilled well-paid jobs, unlike many low-skilled and low-paid jobs in the service sector.
Raymond, Worthing
■ If we get a no-deal Brexit we have to keep the lights on somehow so I suggest we all make the effort to buy British.
I recently bought a British-made Ferguson TV direct from the manufacturers. It’s excellent quality and with a two-year guarantee but the big retailers only stock sets made in the Far East because they’re more profitable.
I think Brexit is a shame but Canada, Australia and New Zealand are queuing up for a free trade and a free movement arrangement with the UK (CANZUK), so we won’t be quite alone. Steve, Oxfordshire