Johnson’s unworkable Northern Ireland proposals are just there to put us off the scent

Please send your letters to letters@independent.co.uk

The PM’s new offering of a “compromise” to Brussels is so obviously absurd, unworkable and unacceptable to Ireland and the EU that its true purpose can only be window-dressing. It is not intended to actually work, but is meant to be rejected. Then the no-deal Brexit the government secretly wants, and the dire short- to medium-term consequences of it (a price they think worth paying to reach the “sunlit uplands”, even though it may take 50 years), can be placed squarely on foreigners, the EU and domestic collaborators and traitors.

Adrian Cosker
Hitchin

Good can come from bad

There is one positive aspect of Brexit. The xenophobic embarrassments that are many of the United Kingdom’s MEPs, whose behaviour makes that of drunken British yobs on holiday look like diplomacy, will be denied their salaries and expenses accounts for which they do nothing in return but harm.

Matt Minshall​
Norfolk

Johnson’s white flag

Boris Johnson’s new Brexit plan represents a capitulation to the Democratic Unionist Party. It is therefore him, not the opposition, that’s guilty of an “act of surrender”.

Roger Hinds
Surrey

Boris Johnson’s conference speech

I read Rob Merrick’s account of Boris Johnson’s criticism of parliament in his customary stand-up comedian’s manner. But this is not Live at the Apollo, because life-changing and existential decisions are being made that affect us and our friends and neighbours in the EU. It is misleading to blame parliament, because many MPs have struggled valiantly to deal with this issue and have tried to be proactive in their approach.

His mantra of coming out of the EU on the 31 October with or without a deal is completely perplexing – maybe he has a “cunning plan” to circumvent the Benn Act, but I am not convinced. Of course, this was a speech to the party faithful and, by looking at their reverential faces, they obviously see Johnson as the facilitator of all things Brexit and our imminent departure. I was saddened to witness the lack of response to the “We are European, we love Europe” line – but therein lies the rub. If the EU turns down these new proposals, this will be an overture to more anti-European feeling and sentiment, and I for one dread this trajectory into island isolation, where Britain sees it itself omnipotent on the world’s stage.

The curtain will probably fall quite sharply on this vainglorious strategy. Why do I think so? I am not a “gloomster”, just a realist who so values our EU membership “warts and all”.

Judith A Daniels
Great Yarmouth

When will Britain’s ‘mum’ step in?

Rather than a Queen’s speech, I should like to see Her Majesty address the people in a televised broadcast akin to that of her Christmas message. She would bring her calm and veiled dignity to help appease the divisive and sometimes even violent nature of this terrible period in our history. She is respected, and loved, by many, even some anti-royalists. She is a “Mummy to the Nation”. An unprecedented move perhaps, but these are troubled times.

Rachel Greenwood
Bewdley

No care for Ireland

Boris’s latest Brexit dishwash shows he has the same grasp, care and understanding of Ireland as he has of race issues, women, foreign diplomacy and proper conduct in public office – ie none.

Amanda Baker

Edinburgh