A bright future outside the single market

SIR – Christopher Booker (Review, February 5) says Britain should stay in the single market and the European Economic Area, because withdrawing from the EU is so complex that to do anything else would be catastrophic for our trade.

The Prime Minister has rejected those options. Because of our trade deficit with the EU, it faces a greater catastrophe than we do. We are in a good position to begin negotiations. David Croxson New Milton, Hampshire SIR – Having voted Remain, I enrolled for a series of lectures about the EU at the law faculty of my local university to find out in more detail what will be lost through Brexit.

Mr Booker is spot-on. Like him, I am convinced that our Government does not really understand how the EU works. And if previous governments had read the thousands of pages of pronouncements more carefully, they would have realised that there are ways to get round almost every ruling. Dr Rosemary Wilson Aix-en-Provence, Bouches-du-Rhône France SIR – Mr Booker must stop saying that when we leave the EU we may not have automatic access to its market.

Anyone can sell into or buy from Europe at any time. There may be tariffs, but the market is open to us and always will be. Markets are not made by governments; they are made by buyers and sellers. A T Brookes Charlwood, Surrey SIR – I still don’t understand how a “soft Brexit” with access to the single market could work. Will Remainers publish their plans? John Fisher Stockport, Cheshire