Boris Johnson is on a hiding to nothing with the EU over Brexit

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I read John Rentoul's column on Brexit  with interest and agree that Boris Johnson is on a hiding to nothing with the EU, who must be heartily sick and tired of this juvenile government, throwing vacuous spanners in the works

In the midst of the most serious and life-threatening pandemic, we have this pointless charade which showers shame on our once very respected country. I hope this bill tanks in parliament in both houses and stops this Boris Johnson/Dominic Cummings/Michael Gove dire triumvirate who wouldn't know how to act with principals and moral probity, because those words do not appear in their vocabulary.

Oh how I long for the old-school politicians and leaders, when their word was their bond or at the very least their signatures on an international treaty was worth something.

Probably the prime minister signed it with his fingers crossed behind his back; or he could have used invisible ink for the all the sincerity that was behind it.

Judith A Daniels

Great Yarmouth

As of this past Thursday, Conservative MPs, if you vote for the internal market bill you are voting for no deal. Bad for jobs. Bad for food prices. Bad for farmers and rural businesses. Bad for Britain.

Who matters more? Dominic, Boris and Michael, the gang of three, or the tens of thousands of constituents you claim to represent –  ALL of us not just the extremist Brexiteers?

Please no more guff about "it’s all their fault" and "moonshot"’ futures. Boris Johnson did the damage this week. Deal with today, tomorrow and 1 January 2021, before you carelessly vote to do us all real harm.

Perry Gardner

Wolsingham

It is said that Dominic Cummings holds the MPs in the ERG [European Research Group] wing of the Conservative Party in low esteem. His disposition must have sunk to new levels of apoplexy as he watches on as these “Spartans” make Boris Johnson deliver on the idea that if they supported his withdrawal agreement, he would make sure it was never actually implemented.

Unless there are enough Tory MPs prepared to stand up for the rule of law, Cummings stands to see the whole purpose of his Brexit project fall apart at the last hurdle: the UK mired in a constitutional crisis, seen abroad as untrustworthy with no prospect of a US trade deal and probable civil unrest in Northern Ireland.

All this on top of a scandalised EU taking legal action against the UK and imposing tariffs and quotas on what little trade makes it through the various lorry parks.

Cummings will have precious few resources left with which to forge his high-tech global Britain.

William Barnes

Glastonbury

I thought that if I waited a few days my outrage about the latest actions by this government would have died down, but it hasn’t. It’s got to the point now that whatever government action I look at (with the possible exclusion of those taken by Rishi Sunak) all I see is bluster, ignorance, condescension and just good old incompetence.

So, while I’ll give Matt Hancock full marks for his work ethic, the test and trace system is anything but world beating and Dido Harding needs to have been sacked weeks ago. Gavin Williamson’s performance could have been bettered by any of the A-level candidates whose marks he downgraded; he’s another one who should be gone.

And now Boris Johnson needs a lesson in how to behave as an adult. Bluster and three-word slogans do not make him a memorable prime minister. Rather he looks increasingly like a village idiot under the thrall of Dominic Cummings.

I don’t want our country to suffer (any more than it already is) by anyone or anybody taking action to stop Johnson, but I firmly believe that he has to be taken down a peg or two for our collective future. If, as someone once said, we have the government we deserve, I fail to see how all of us ordinary folk have done so badly as to deserve who we have right now.

Steve Mumby

London

Famously Mrs Thatcher delighted in telling us “the lady’s not for turning”. She was a master of her brief.

Embarrassingly one of her successors Boris Johnston is always U-turning and makes up his brief as he goes on in “unreal time” . How shall we know him?

One who exhibits a complete lack of understanding of the important matters they are responsible for – and so is forced to make frequent U-turns.

He’ll certainly go down in history.

Hugh Woodhouse

Brighton

A message for the country

How good it would be to see the London described by Mary Dejevsky come to fruition but this won’t happen by chance. As our familiarity and fear of Covid-19 both grows and diminishes there will be a slow return to the unmanageable capital drawing in from the rest of the country all the wealth, employment and national resentment as before.

It doesn’t have to be like this and there are amazing opportunities at the government’s fingertips right now which should be grasped.

The Houses of Parliament are falling down, a super fast rail network is going to be constructed up the spine of the country. Add to this all we have learnt in a few months about the ease of internet communications rather than face to face meetings.

Rebuild the Palace of Westminster as a cultural centre, museum or whatever the public want.

Somewhere possibly between Birmingham and Coventry on the HS2 line put in a station and directly link this into a new parliament complex.

One that will embrace the most modern communications and will send out the message that we are no longer some antediluvian braying mass sitting on leather benches but a forward looking, switched on country

Not only will this transform London but what a fantastic message to send out to the rest of the UK

Alastair Duncan

Address supplied