The EU has no interest in striking a deal that will satisfy Brexiteers
SIR – The debate about the EU’S approach to the Brexit negotiations ignores a couple of key points that have been there from the beginning – namely, that the EU does not want us to leave, but if we do, it will make us suffer in order to deter others.
The ludicrous divorce bill is merely one part of that strategy. It will either deter us from leaving at all, or it will make it very painful.
It’s impossible to have meaningful negotiations with anyone who has this mindset. Our Government should have told the EU that we would have none of this nonsense and simply left – because that, in the end, is what we were always going to have to do.
The EU will not reduce its demands to a level that British voters would be willing to accept. The gap is far too wide and the goodwill is not there.
Portsmouth, Hampshire
SIR – Negotiators for Britain and the EU appear to be waiting to see who blinks first on the issue of procedure. Meanwhile, Britain remains a member of the EU and so is unable to make new trade deals with non-eu states, which could lower the costs of imports from these countries and offset the effects of a falling pound.
The EU clearly believes this stalemate works in its favour, and so is in no hurry to expedite a final divorce agreement. It still receives our payments, even if we no longer have any substantive voice in its affairs.
The Government needs to apply a little pressure itself, by stopping our contributions to the EU budget for every month that the EU insists we follow its arbitrary, partisan timetable.
Aldeburgh, Suffolk
SIR – The time has come for Britain to remind the European Commission that we are determined to leave all the EU’S institutions but are, none the less, willing to carry on trading with them on existing terms, if that is their wish.
At a stroke we would cease to be the supplicant: the choice would be theirs and the uncertainty would be swiftly ended. What’s not to like ?
Bridgnorth, Shropshire
SIR – I must challenge the logic of Ron Stubberfield (Letters, August 31) and Venetia Caine (Letters, August 30), who say we should not have held our EU referendum, and that the vote to leave was too small to be acted upon.
We must never forget that our decision was taken in the face of fierce opposition from David Cameron, George Osborne, Barack Obama, the CBI and many other economists and politicians. They warned, among other dire things, of an immediate and profound shock to our economy, which of course has not happened.
The fact that the British public voted to leave despite all this was an incredible result; and I have no doubt that without all the negative exhortations, the majority in favour of leaving would have been vastly higher. Peter de la Nougerede
Seaford, East Sussex