Chuck Chequers and let British entrepreneurs benefit from a free trade agreement
SIR – The Alliance of British Entrepreneurs is proud to be backed by the 200 entrepreneurs below. We believe that the Chequers deal is a muddled compromise that suits no one on either side of the referendum divide.
The “common rulebook” that it accepts offers the EU carte blanche to dictate policy, stifling innovation and leaving us a passive rule-taker. Chequers also hobbles the greatest economic opportunity of Brexit: that of free trade agreements with old allies and new friends round the world.
As shown at Salzburg, Chequers is doomed to fail. It will not make it through Parliament and is unacceptable to the EU. The result will be more uncertainty and continuing Government paralysis.
Time is short. We must reset the negotiations to pursue a free trade agreement (like the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement between Canada and the EU), as offered by Donald Tusk in March 2018.
In tandem, the Government must immediately expedite preparations for trading on World Trade Organisation terms and should be ready to make the United Kingdom hyper competitive come March 2019.
The message of the Alliance of British Entrepreneurs (ABE) is this: be bold, be resolute and be entrepreneurial. Britain deserves better than Chequers. Tom Bohills
Co-founder, ABE and Head of Legal, Red Deer Edward Harden
Co-founder, ABE and co-founder Justseats.org Tim Martin
Chairman, JD Wetherspoon Lord Flight (Con) and 196 others; see telegraph.co.uk
SIR – This is the moment I have been waiting for – Boris has spoken (Commentary, September 28). He thinks well, writes exceedingly well and says what he thinks, which is unusual in a politician. He has a vision of how things could and should be.
Perhaps now we shall see some progress on this turgid “thing” that is Brexit. We can rid ourselves of this “conspicuous infirmity of purpose”. Jenny Arnold
Kingsbridge, Devon
SIR – Hooray for Boris Johnson and his vision for Brexit. Why has it taken so long for somebody to see sense and put on paper all which is required to take us out of the EU?
How did we end up with a wishywashy leader and self-confessed Remainer, together with a very drab Chancellor limping along to the position we are in at present?
We should throw out Chequers and get behind Mr Johnson’s vision pronto. Judith Borland
Ely, Cambridgeshire
SIR – We certainly need a Cabinet reshuffle – starting at the top. The whole Cabinet seems struck dumb, with Boris Johnson the only person making Conservative conversation.
Jeremy Corbyn says he will create thousands of jobs, as though we had high unemployment. We have record employment but you will not hear this from the three glums, Theresa May, Philip Hammond and Mark Carney, the Governor of the Bank of England.
This is just one example of Cabinet silence. Whatever will they talk about at the Conservative Party Conference – one gloomy forecast after another, I suppose, and nobody allowed to disagree. Do they have a death wish? Elizabeth Spooner
Wokingham, Berkshire
SIR – Lack of progress towards Brexit is almost entirely down to the recalcitrance, intimidation and blackmail by Brussels and not the failure of Theresa May’s efforts. The personal aspirations of Boris Johnson just do not help. Peter Wilson
Nuneaton, Warwickshire
SIR – If I had sufficient funds I would corner the market in handcarts. Robert Plummer
Wimborne, Dorset