Poverty and envy now Britain’s fate

JAMES Cole is right to say May is the wrong leader for Brexit now that she has lost all authority both in Parliament and in Europe, but he is mistaken in saying “that if we leave it will be a dreadful deal, like Norway’s.”

The worst possible outcome of leaving the EU without a deal now looks a distinct possibility, which makes a deal like Norway’s the leastworst option. This raises the question of what did Leave voters think they were voting for? If it was to “take back control”, what control will we have when we find we still have to pay for access but without any control over decision-making? Have they noticed that we don’t manufacture very much anymore, apart from armaments to the Middle East, and that we are heavily dependent on financial services which are likely to relocate to mainland Europe. If their main motivation was to curb immigration, have they noticed that non-EU immigration, over which we do have control, exceeds that from Europe, and are they concerned about the increase in hate crime unleashed by the referendum that was intended to unite a divided Tory Party but has deeply divided our nation?

Whatever deal is negotiated will be a worse deal than the one we have now and we will become an impoverished little island, with even more of our wealth stashed off-shore for tax avoidance, looking on in envy as France and Germany lead a renewed Europe to greater prosperity and security. Margaret Phelps Penarth