Brexit overshadowed but its damaging impact remains

Sir, – The focus on Covid, the Scottish Parliamentary elections and the death of the Duke of Edinburgh have dominated the headlines, but the Brexit chaos hasn’t gone away.

It was held up as our liberation from unnecessary regulation and a bright new future on the world stage, but we don’t hear much of that now. And the reality is that, so far, Brexit has been a disaster, with exports in January down by 40.7%, and imports from the EU, our main trading partner, down by 28%, the biggest fall in exports since records began.

For some smaller businesses the paperwork, bureaucracy and health certification has meant that exporting to the EU is no longer viable.

Some have just given up, while others have relocated to, or opened an office in, the EU.

None of this presumably was part of Mr Johnson’s plan.

And it is likely to get much worse shortly because our government didn’t get systems in place in time to control goods coming into the UK.

So our borders have actually been open since Brexit.

New regulations and checks come into effect shortly, which, on past form, will cause chaos and lead to shortages and price rises, with many European companies probably cutting their losses and giving up on the UK altogether.

And now we have the return of sectarian troubles in Northern Ireland.

The then minister for international trade, Liam Fox, said in 2017 that it will be “the easiest deal in human history”.

We don’t hear much about that now.

Les Mackay. Carmichael Gardens, Dundee.