Britain’s Brexit impotence is the legacy of Theresa May’s timidity, duplicity and vacillation
SIR – Just before the last election, Theresa May promised us that the EU would soon discover that she was “a bloody difficult woman”. In fact, the EU quickly realised she was a pushover; it was the British electorate that found her bloody impossible.
Where we needed clear vision, a bold strategy and strong leadership, we got muddled thinking, timidity, duplicity and vacillation.
Mrs May has failed to highlight the many opportunities that await us once we are free from the shackles of the EU. Her flexible policies are decided by Remainer civil servants and advisers, and her ministers are sidelined.
Her quest for “compromise” has given away every trump card in the negotiations, and has sacrificed her authority in Parliament. She has snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, and we are now the laughing stock of the world. We shall pay a fortune to be a vassal state.
The Chequers charade proves that Mrs May has succumbed to the EU regardless of cost or consequences. She will be held in contempt by both Leavers and Remainers. Brexit is betrayed, voters vilified and democracy dismissed.
Disillusioned ministers and MPS have refrained from bringing her down for fear of the crisis leading to a Corbyn government. In fact, voters would welcome principled leadership at this crucial stage in the negotiations. If the current farce is allowed to reach its disastrous conclusion, voters will certainly be unforgiving.
Perhaps Conservative voters could learn something from Jeremy Corbyn and Momentum. If all disillusioned Brexiteers became paid-up members of the Conservative Party, they could influence the selection of their MP, sacking those who refuse to accept the will of the people. Alan Rogers
Epsom, Surrey
SIR – What a breathtaking spectacle of floundering incompetence. Britain deserves better. Hugh Ellwood
Lytham St Annes, Lancashire
SIR – Since the referendum, Remainers have often asserted that people who voted Leave did not know what they were voting for.
I now have to concede that, in one sense, they were right. I did not know that I was voting for the shambles that Theresa May has made of Brexit with her proposed total surrender to the EU. Andy Bebbington
Ravenshead, Nottinghamshire
SIR – I had hoped for a second Margaret Thatcher with the election of Theresa May. Sadly I seem to have got a second Edward Heath. David Booth
Latheron, Caithness
SIR – I think the wrong person resigned on Sunday evening. Graham Bond
Matching Green, Essex
SIR – It seems that we are walking away from Brexit, Mrs May and a Conservative Government.
The prospects are frightening. Europe will demand more money, Labour will tax us more and Britain will be subsumed into a huge socialist monolith.
However, on the bright side, by the time Labour has almost ruined the country once more, we may have a Tory in charge of the Conservatives.
To be fair, Mrs May has not had an easy ride, but then she was never up to the job.
Richard A E Grove
Isle of Whithorn, Wigtownshire
SIR – We should not be surprised at the Prime Minister’s solution to the Brexit conundrum. She is, at heart, a Remainer, as are the majority of the political establishment and the civil service in this country. It was all a matter of how to wrap it up and present it to the British public. Mick Richards
Claines, Worcestershire
SIR – Has the Labour Party’s 1983 manifesto, dubbed the “longest suicide note in history”, been surpassed by the Chequers agreement’s draft White Paper? Russell Hunt
Fleet, Hampshire
SIR – Britain has a reputation for losing every battle but the last. If the resignation of David Davis, whom I had misjudged, does the trick, Britain will be in his debt forever.
I am delighted to see that Boris Johnson has followed his lead. But will one, two … or five of the other Cabinet Brexiteers support them? That would kill the Chequers plan stone dead.
I do not believe that it would bring the Government down, though it might bring Mrs May down.
In any case, there would be no reason to fear a general election. The people of this country were willing to give the complacent Tories a bloody nose last time round, but they will not make Jeremy Corbyn Prime Minister. Stuart Wheeler
London SW1
SIR – By resigning, David Davis and Boris Johnson have shown themselves, for all their very different personal styles, men of courage and principle. The contrast with the behaviour of the Prime Minister, and for that matter the slippery Michael Gove, could hardly be greater.
Over Brexit, Mrs May and Mr Gove are now bereft of credibility and trustworthiness.
The country feels betrayed by Mrs May and unless she is gone by the end of September, together with her coterie of advisers, the Conservative Party will already have lost the next election. Terry Smith
London NW11
SIR – David Davis was absolutely right to resign, as was The Sunday Telegraph to publish its leading article.
We have always undersold Brexit. There needed to be a vision of the future after Brexit: of the excitement of trade on the high seas, and of the protection of our precious legal system and the sovereignty of Parliament, not to mention Nato.
The only person who has consistently seemed to bring all this together is Jacob Rees-mogg. Lord Spicer
London SW1
SIR – Churchill said that democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others.
Mrs May chose one of those others. Roger Wallbridge
Royston, Hertfordshire
SIR – Is Brexit Mrs May’s River Kwai?
Her obsession with appeasing Europe while allegedly negotiating Brexit is depressingly similar to Alec Guinness’s dedication to his bridge, regardless of the consequences.
At the end, however, he asks: “What have I done?” Margaret Barkwith
Pinner, Middlesex
SIR – I would readily echo the calls for Mrs May’s replacement, were I not fearful that the same party process that resulted in her selection might produce an equally anodyne outcome – a compromise who least offends the squabbling factions. We desperately need a leader. Ken Stevens
Sonning Common, Oxfordshire SIR – It is now being suggested that the present crisis has been caused not by the Prime Minister’s manifest ineptitude, but by the fact that the Brexiteers did not have a plan.
I was a principal speaker for Vote Leave in the Brexit campaign. I had a plan and I have no reason to think that this plan was not shared by the leading Brexiteers. It was to announce immediately after the referendum result that, since the EU would never concede a free-trade arrangement, we should instead expect to trade on World Trade Organisation rules. We should have immediately embarked on the measures to make that a reality and timed the serving of Article 50 accordingly.
To make that work, it would have needed, ideally, a PM who did not see Brexit merely as an exercise in damage limitation, but, far more importantly had a substantial majority in the House of Commons.
It was the Prime Minister who was responsible for the fiasco of the 2017 general election and therefore it is the Prime Minster who must bear the blame for where we are today. Patrick Nicholls
Hemyock, Devon
SIR – The behaviour of most of the so-called Brexiteers in Cabinet was as appalling as that of the 103 Labour MPS, who, after initially putting forward a vote of no confidence in Jeremy Corbyn, welcomed him into Parliament like a conquering hero because he had not been wiped out in the 2017 general election. Really it was because they had kept their jobs.
This is why right-minded folk of all political persuasions hold most MPS in contempt. For Tory MPS to behave in such a fashion is outrageous – and, though I have voted Tory all my life, I will never vote for them again.
The largest number to vote for anything – 17.4 million people – is being ignored. What does this say about our democracy? It suggests that it has been tainted by the European model of technocrats, managers and dictatorial outpourings, which we may rail against but can do nothing about. Jonathan Arthur
London SW7
SIR – Following the white smoke emerging from Chequers on Friday evening, I can foresee a lot of black smoke emerging from the Conservative Party constituency associations round the country as members burn their party cards. These are the people who get the candidates elected.
As usual, Brexiteer ministers have used Euroscepticism to gain a foothold towards the leadership, but have quickly fallen in line when that is not available. The Conservative voting public will not be fooled again. Philip J Honey
Lound, Nottinghamshire
SIR – Where are the politicians of principle who will honour the manifesto promises they were elected on? Instead we have traitorous members of the Cabinet who think only of their careers, rather than the country.
There must be a strong, honest politician somewhere who can get us out of this mess. Eileen Ward
Solihull
SIR – Old-fashioned values, empathy, straight-talking and a smart waistcoat seem to have done wonders for the English football team’s performance.
Could Jacob Rees-mogg be the Gareth Southgate of politics? Veronica Mclaren
Brockenhurst, Hampshire
SIR – It would now seem that, in order to walk away with no deal, all we have to do is – absolutely nothing. Dr David Shoesmith
York