EU zealots will never accede to Mrs May’s heretical Brexit pragmatism
SIR – Theresa May delivered a wellcrafted speech yesterday, setting out a practical way forward for an ambitious and balanced UK-EU relationship.
Unfortunately her interlocutors start from a theological position concerning the sanctity of the EU’S internal market and customs union and the holy writ of the Court of Justice.
For them, either you are in or you are out, and any approach along the lines of Mrs May’s is by definition cherrypicking and hence intolerable heresy.
We must be prepared for, indeed expect, EU intransigence, and hence more than ever we need a credible, actionable “no-deal” plan. No one wants to walk away, but only by having that as a realistic option will we get an acceptable outcome.
Otherwise, the conversation risks dragging on until we are forced into capitulation in order to avoid a chaotic cliff-edge next March. Mrs May may not want to repeat that no deal is better than a bad deal, and the Chancellor, Philip Hammond, may not wish to spend taxpayers’ money on preparations for a contingency no one wants – but it will be a good investment if it stops either of those disastrous outcomes. Austin Spreadbury
Enfield, Middlesex
SIR – The Prime Minister is sometimes criticised for being dull, diligent and dogged. These are the very qualities that are needed to take the United Kingdom through Brexit to the sunny uplands that she outlined so well in her speech at Mansion House. Hamish Mcfall
Clitheroe, Lancashire
SIR – With “ambitious managed divergence”, are we heading for a Schrödinger’s Brexit? Adrian Waller
Woodsetts, South Yorkshire
SIR – I understand why the EU keep endlessly repeating that the British Government must tell them what we want after Brexit. This is their job. Despite knowing that we want frictionless customs arrangements and tariff-free trade without strings attached, they must continue to pretend that this isn’t clear, not least because to give us these things would be to destabilise their union.
What is really annoying is to hear British talking heads, who ought to know better, repeating their nonsense. Mick Andrews
Doncaster, South Yorkshire
SIR – Lord Heseltine suggested on Today yesterday that the “short-term” damage of a Corbyn government is a price worth paying to stay in the EU.
Has he forgotten that the country is still trying to dig itself out from under the damage done to the economy by the profligacy of my namesake? Gordon Brown
Grassington, North Yorkshire
SIR – Progress at last in the Brexit negotiations. Le cherry-picking seems to have entered the French language. Hugh Stewart-smith
London E11