Government has failed to highlight many benefits of leaving European Union

The government’s disastrous handling of Brexit has included a failure to appreciate and explain the many benefits of leaving the EU.

This has allowed the Remain lobby to dominate the debate and resurrect “Project Fear”, raising unnecessary concerns about a “no deal” outcome to negotiations.

Over 150 countries around the world are not members of the EU and do not have a trade deal with them, yet they all trade with the EU, some to a greater extent than the UK.

Yes, no trade deal would mean we have to pay tariffs, but they are mostly small and would only affect a small proportion of companies, all of whom have to obey EU regulations which are estimated to cost the economy over £30 billion pa. It is impossible to accept that joining the rest of the world as an independent country will be the disaster some allege.

Nearly 60 per cent of UK exports go to countries outside the EU and this figure is increasing. Once we leave the EU we will not have to charge tariffs to these countries and trade will increase further. World food prices are 17 per cent lower outwith the EU and one benefit will be a large drop in food prices when we leave.

People who voted Leave did not do so for the UK to continue as some kind of colony of the EU still subject to many of its laws and regulations. No other country in the world would agree to the Chequers proposal, an arrangement which is rightly criticised by many Remainers as well as the wider public. If the government cannot deliver a clean Brexit it deserves to fall.

JOHN HUNT

York Road, North Berwick

It is interesting to note how often “the democratic process” is invoked to justify or reject the idea of a second referendum.

Since, unlike the Swiss, we are rather unused to referenda, I am not sure that there is a precedent, democratic or not, for saying that a second referendum on the same matter cannot be held within a short period of time, more especially if there is a crisis at the heart of our decision-making body. If our elected representatives can’t make up their mind, then why not the “people”?

What might make a new vote meaningful would be to acknowledge that it is the young who will either pay the price or reap the benefit of leaving the EU. Enfranchising 16-year-olds and even disqualifying the over-50s might be a step in the right direction!

What is certain is that, for many, there is only one bogeyman in this sad episode, not our political parties, nor the press nor leading figures in society, but the EU.

On to the EU will be heaped all the anger, frustration and disappointment of an embittered, divided nation that has failed to recognise where the blame for our woes lies. It is with the media that feeds us the stories we want to hear, the people we elect to lead us and ultimately ourselves.

TREVOR RIGG

Greenbank Gardens, Edinburgh