Softly softly

The calls from a growing number of cabinet ministers and Conservative back benchers for Chancellor Phillip Hammond to be sacked on grounds of political incompetence demonstrate, beyond dispute, that this government doesn’t do irony.

On the subject of Brexit, Hammond often seems like the only grown-up in the room, but his argument that there is much less time than many suppose is lost upon his colleagues.

With every day that passes without progress towards an agreement with the EU, more and more Uk-based businesses are concluding that they must plan to relocate to another EU country. Relocating is costly, difficult and, above all else, time consuming. Businesses cannot afford to wait until the last moment. Brexiteers in the government, who want to pursue a hardline policy right up to the deadline in the belief that a desperate last-minute deal will be done, may be right, but they will announce their triumph to an empty City.

Hammond realises that we need to approach the negotiations softly in order to give UK businesses confidence that the political will exists to conclude a reasonable deal on workable terms. His cabinet colleagues (or enemies, as he might more accurately describe them) do not realise this, and blunder on in the belief that, in Europe, the EU will eventually cave in, and in the UK, fear of a Corbyn government will protect them from the wrath of the electorate.

The only good that could, perhaps, come of this would be if Hammond were to be replaced by a hard-brexit chancellor, who would very quickly find in office that his beliefs were challenged by economic reality, and might be able to convince his fellow believers in a way Hammond cannot. GRAHAM M MCLEOD

Muirs, Kinross David Cameron has much to answer for with his hapless Brussels negotiations and socalled better deal in the run-up to the UK Referendum.

However, it is a bit rich for Jean-claude Juncker to tell the UK “we would have to pay” for leaving the EU. The now European Commission President – another Cameron failure – was Prime Minister and Finance Minister of Luxembourg when sweetheart tax deals were done with Amazon.

It takes a Dane – Competition Commissioner Margrette Vestager – to tell Amazon it must cough up for over £220 million in back taxes via the European Commission ruling Luxembourg must recover the unpaid cash with interest.

Meantime, many ordinary businesses here must reflect on what they might or might not have saved with Grand Duchy economics. If Amazon and other US corporations Facebook and Apple do cough up toeu demands it could save the UK paying anything and even earn a dividend!

JIM CRAIGEN Downie Grove, Edinburgh We need to acknowledge that there are over a million Brits living in Europe, many retired, and many who have sold their houses in the UK with no guarantee that their medical needs will continue to be met in Europe. And that is not the fault of Europe; it is the fault of a Britain that wants to operate outside the EU. British migrants – or ex-pats, if you prefer – that cannot afford private health insurance will be forced to come back to the UK, many needing to be housed.

What will Brexiteers say when they see the NHS swamped with British expats demanding treatment they can no longer get free in Europe?

And what will Brexiteers do when their doctor tells them how their arthritis or other health conditions could be improved by retiring to the Costas? They must negotiate a falling pound; permits needed to work; no free health care and flights to a wet Newquay often more expensive than flights to Alicante with a temperature the same as Los Angeles.

GARRY COBB Director, Let’s Live Abroad Ltd

Bath Street, Glasgow