If Britain keeps on paying the EU we shall never be able to break free
SIR – You report (December 16) that Michel Barnier, the chief EU negotiator, requires Britain to continue paying for EU projects after we leave the EU. I hope that the Government rejects this. Kipling got it right. Once you pay the Danegeld you never get rid of the Dane. Ian Stafford London SW19
SIR – Britain has been a substantial net contributor to the EU farrago in every one of our 43 years of membership. Very few other EU members have ever been net contributors.
Thus, not only has Britain more than funded our own liabilities as an EU member, we have also funded most other EU members’ commitments over the years, including the salary and pension of Mr Barnier. Geoff Ludlow Hythe, Kent
SIR – We can exit the EU immediately by repealing the European Communities Act 1972 in the UK Parliament. What, if any, payment we make is then entirely up to us.
We can, of course, tax every adult an extra £1,000 if we prefer. Brian Gilbert Hampton, Middlesex
SIR – If we refuse to pay the £50 billion Brexit bill will the EU expel us? John Brooks Fulwood, Lancashire
SIR – The display of appallingly bad manners to Theresa May at the EU summit demonstrates the rightness of quitting such a bully-boy club. Ann Cooper Lytham St Annes, Lancashire
SIR – Mrs May is being ostracised by the EU Council and we have not yet invoked Article 50. If we are still paying billions, we should still be full members of the “club”. Perhaps we should reduce payments in line with the amount of influence we now have. Tony Fricker Lindfield, West Sussex SIR – The immaturity, arrogance and sheer nastiness it is demonstrating in its response to Brexit reveals the EU’s true nature. Pauline Coleman Painswick, Gloucestershire
SIR –M H Fisher (Letters, December 12) highlights the continued need to import skills after Brexit. But we have imported skills selectively from nonEU countries for many years.
After Brexit we need to do the same for residents of EU countries – and to resume training our own doctors, nurses and engineers. Roger J Arthur Storrington, West Sussex
SIR – My daughter returned this week from her job in the EU Parliament. She proudly showed me her leaving present of a snow-globe. I had to point out that its plinth had only 27 national flags, as the Union flag had already disappeared. Who needs Article 50? Stewart Hudson Lisburn, Co Antrim