This tragic mess of Brexit stems from the EU’S contempt for Britain’s democratic decision

SIR – It is easy to blame MPS for the tragic mess that Brexit has become. But, as Ambrose Evans-pritchard showed again this week (Business, April 8), the real responsibility lies with the EU Commission.

The EU declared war on Britain’s referendum result and deliberately made the Withdrawal Agreement an almost impossible pill to swallow. It was intended, as President Emmanuel Macron has said, to make Britain suffer.

Mr Macron was astonishingly hypocritical in saying last week that the EU “cannot be hostage to the political crisis in the UK”, when it is his and the Commission’s determination to humiliate Britain, especially with the backstop, that created this crisis.

Sir Peter Marshall, the highly esteemed British diplomat, argues that “the main responsibility for the present impasse is the inflexible attitude” of Brussels. As for the backstop, “it is difficult to know whether to laugh or cry” – “no democratic legislative body should accept” it. As The Telegraph has reported, Marcel Fratzscher, the head of the German Institute for Economic Research, agrees: “The Bundestag itself could hardly have voted otherwise in comparable circumstances.”

Sigmar Gabriel, till recently the German foreign minister, and other senior German officials have expressed equal concern about the treatment of Britain.

Since the referendum, the EU has shown its authoritarian colours more clearly than ever. Its contempt for the democratic decision of the British people will do huge damage to the EU’S deeply flawed structures and ambitions, not just to Britain. It can never again be mistaken for a free association of free nations. William Shawcross

London W2

SIR – As I writhe in embarrassment at the treatment of the UK by the EU, I wonder why neither side of the debate in this country has properly explained what Britain’s prospects will look like in the future.

Remain relentlessly shouts about crashing gloom. Leave has failed to explain the benefits.

There is a lack of vision, everyone vying to say what they don’t want. An election of any sort in the near future will have an emetic effect. Ian Jacob

Woodbridge, Suffolk

SIR – What a mess we’re in! Although I voted Remain, I now support Leave, but in these chaotic circumstances, this is not the time to leave.

The way forward, I suggest, is for the Article 50 notice to be withdrawn, followed by an election for a new leader of the Conservative Party. Then, at an appropriate moment, bearing in mind the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011, we have a general election, with each party setting out whether it supports or does not support Brexit; and if it supports Brexit, upon what terms.

Then, let the people decide whether they want Brexit, appropriately in a general election, rather than the clumsy device of a referendum. If a pro-brexit party wins a majority in the House of Commons, it serves an Article 50 notice and renegotiates our departure from the EU.

In my opinion, the European Court of Justice could not disapprove, as the decision to re-serve the Article 50 notice will have been taken by a different government.

The Rev His Honour Peter Morrell Nassington, Northamptonshire

SIR – Why does Mrs May cling on in such a shameful situation? It is not as if she is holding the Government, her party or still less the country, together.

I am convinced that it is because the inner cabal of Remainer politicians and officials around her (Lidington, Barwell, Robbins, Sedwill et al) will not allow Mrs May to go until they achieve her rotten deal, an even softer Brexit or, preferably for them, Brexit has been shelved sine die.

For Mrs May’s puppeteers anything (including a Corbyn government) is better than real Brexit. Terry Smith

London NW11