Not too late to breathe the fresh air of Norway into stagnant Brexit

SIR – William Hague (Comment, October 16) is right to say that fresh thinking is needed to solve Brexit. That is what the so-called “Norway option” represents.

This is based on the European Economic Area (EEA). Our existing membership of that pan-european treaty could be made operative by simply applying to join the related European Free Trade Association, which Britain helped establish in 1960.

However, Lord Hague is too cautious. The Norway option does deliver Brexit, by removing us from the EU, providing opportunities to control freedom of movement and taking us outside the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice, the Common Agricultural Policy and the Common Fisheries policy. But the Norway option also helps solve the thorniest issue: the Irish border.

The EEA is a working free-trade agreement based on established law, institutions and practice that works very well between Norway and its EU neighbours, Sweden and Denmark.

The United Kingdom would remain aligned with the single market, but under the terms of the treaty the parties have a duty to deepen and facilitate trade, remove restrictions and make customs processes work efficiently. By taking up our rights as a contracting party to the EEA, the “Irish backstop” would be removed and, anyway, no longer be needed.

We would have enforceable legal rights and a structure would be in place to enable the technological, frictionless solutions we hear so much about. It would restore mutual trust to the situation. Neither the EU nor the Republic of Ireland would have grounds to object.

Once safely outside the EU and in the EEA, we could pause, recover our strength, and start developing a long-term relationship based on the one Canada has with the EU.

A recent in-depth study of public opinion by academics at King’s College London found this Norway solution to be the most popular Brexit option.

If common sense ever does prevail in Westminster, it is the way forward. Unlike other proposals on offer, it would unite the country, and it works.

George Trefgarne London WC2

SIR – Donald Tusk, the President of the European Council, made a Freudian slip by mentioning the mythological Gordian knot as an image of the impasse over the Irish border.

Actually he has found the best image for the trammels of the EU. It is the UK that needs the great warrior with a sword to cut it open.

Michael Marks Glascwm, Radnorshire

SIR – Renewed calls for a “people’s vote” employ a misnomer. We had a people’s vote in 2016, and Leave won.

What is now demanded is an “elitists’ vote”, so that the elites in this country can reverse the decision taken by the ignorant plebs and force us to stay in this undemocratic institution.

David James Chaddesley Corbett, Worcestershire