Belligerence to the UK could bring Europe’s house tumbling down

SIR – We in Britain are net consumers, buying a tremendous amount from Europe (particularly from France and Germany). Forcing a hard Brexit, with trade barriers and tariffs, could well see unemployment rise across Europe, which might be the final straw that makes the EU collapse. The belligerent European politicians can ill afford such a strategy. London N3 SIR – If a Belgian province can scupper a trade deal with Canada, there is not the remotest chance that Britain can forge one. The EU wants to punish our apostasy and is quite capable of acting against its own interests to bar us from the single market.

Why not, then, make a virtue of necessity, invoke Article 50 without delay, tell Brussels we do not wish to remain in the single market and stop paying them from that date? I cannot see the point of delaying the process. Eastbourne, East Sussex SIR – BBC commentators and other embittered Remainers suggest that the Government has a choice between hard and soft Brexit. This is transparently intended to chip away at the referendum result.

The key desire of Brexiteers was to regain control over sovereignty and immigration. So the Government is bound by the referendum to terminate any influence in the UK of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) and to end the free movement of EU citizens to the UK. That almost certainly means leaving the single market.

Elements of compromise are possible in key areas. The Government might agree to make payments to the EU to secure particular access, for example passporting in financial services. Such payments to the EU could be balanced by payments from the EU to the UK in respect of, for example, fishing quotas for EU fleets in Britain’s coastal waters.

EU arrangements like those for Norway or Switzerland would not work, as they imply continued ECJ London W8 SIR – Britain was never much liked in Brussels. Now we have announced our intention to leave, that dislike is even more pronounced. This is no reason to remain – it confirms the referendum decision to leave was correct. Tenterden, Kent SIR – I keep being told that all 27 member states must agree a Brexit deal. I heard it twice in one Question Time. It’s not true. Article 50 provides for qualified majority voting – with individual states only having a veto on extending the two-year deadline.

So with goodwill by Britain and the main EU countries, together with a majority in the EU parliament, a deal can be agreed without being held to ransom by small individual states. Inkberrow, Worcestershire