Best way to cope with economic challenges of Brexit is to adopt WTO measures

I am at a loss as to why scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon regards as a problem the question of how the UK will cope with the economic challenges of leaving the EU bloc.

As a Sassenach son of a Czech national who has to tolerate many more Remainers in England than the Scots do, the answer is fairly simple and it is not found in the way soft Theresa May and her team are conducting negotiations.

Brussels supporters are forever extolling the virtues of the EU, but in reality it is a failing regime, Germany apart. France is failing – its huge agricultural sector being entirely dependent on CAP payments; Italian banks are on a knife-edge; Spain’s under-25 unemployment is appalling – and I haven’t even mentioned Greece or Portugal. Moreover, the smaller former eastern-bloc countries are far too small to make any significant positive impact.

Let me provide an answer to Ms Sturgeon. We immediately inform the EU that we intend to adopt World Trade Organisation rules. Yes, if that scenario materialised, for a couple of years we would have some difficulty – but at the same time, Europe would be devastated.

Just consider, Germany sells the UK 800,000 cars per annum, France also sends large numbers of cars, wine, perfumes and cheese to Britain. All these industries would experience huge redundancies via the tariffs which would apply. A report just out forecast it could cost Brussels e500 billion. Whether or not that is an accurate assessment, a recent Council of Ministers meeting saw them concede that the European beef market would almost certainly collapse under a nodeal system because the UK is also their largest market. We already know the UK would gain by approximately £7bn per annum, courtesy of the trade surplus that the EU has with us. The subsequent political unrest across Europe would soon ensure that the bureaucrats came to the table with a tariff-free deal. Job done!

Obviously, no one wants to see the EU collapse, but we have to negotiate with a firm hand – if only to wipe the smirk from Michel Barnier’s face after every press conference with David Davis.

Finally, I have to admit to being mystified as to why English and Scottish politicians have allegiance to the European Union, rather than to the citizens in their own country.

JIM SOKOL St John’s Way, Hempton

Banbury, Oxon Our First Minister claims “hard Brexiteers” have failed to explain how the UK would cope with the economic challenges of leaving the EU, and accuse the Prime Minister of focusing purely on “internal Tory party obsessions”. If the FM were to substitute independence, Scotland, the UK and SNP in this sentence she would realise why support for her party is falling due to her stated belief that “independence transcends everything”.

KEN CURRIE Liberton Drive, Edinburgh Gill Turner says Denmark and Norway are independent countries (Letters, 13 January). Oops! Any country that does what it is told by a group of other countries in adhering to legislation over which it has no say is not independent by any measured criterion of which I am aware. That is Norway’s position as an EEA state.

Denmark, for all that it is a member state of the EU, is equally ruled by legislation instigated by the unelected Commissioners of the EU who are also unaccountable to any member state. The European Parliament is unable to instigate legislation. It enacts what it is told to by the unelected commissioners, thus Denmark is run by people who are not Danish, do not live in Denmark, yet decide what rules will apply in Denmark.

Perhaps Ms Turner can explain how any nation which is run by these commissioners, all except one of whom are foreign, can be “independent”? Perhaps this is a new definition of the word?

ANDREW HN GRAY Craiglea Drive, Edinburgh