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Your support makes all the difference.I have listened to Michael Gove expressing outrage that the EU is apparently contemplating not granting the UK “third-country status”, in other words, not allowing UK exports into its territory without any guarantee that they meet EU standards.
I just don’t believe that if I could foresee this problem – as I did in a letter last month – nobody in the Conservative government could foresee it. It seems to me, therefore, that it follows that Boris Johnson signed the withdrawal agreement never intending to comply with it or else he did not care whether it was complied with or not.
He always intended the UK to leave without a future trading agreement and he intends that outcome still. Doesn’t the “third-country status” problem still exist, though?
Helen Bore
Scarborough, North Yorkshire
For there to be any impediment to UK internal trade between London and Northern Ireland is just absurd. Hence all should support the prime minister in upholding the integrity of our country – and regardless of how one voted in the general election or in the infamous referendum. I personally voted Remain and have long been a fervent supporter of Europe.
May I also politely remind our EU partners that HM forces have been at forefront of Europe’s security and that many of these service people doing their bit for Europe have been the sons and daughters of Northern Ireland.
It is high time that the United Kingdom was strengthened amid this painful Brexit “divorce”. Time to put impetus behind the tunnel to Northern Ireland so that freight can board trains at Belfast and proceed direct to London – and the EU via the Channel Tunnel.
John Barstow
Pulborough, West Sussex
In the UK, passions are running very high over Brexit and although the Remainers publicly say that they now accept the vote, they continue, at every opportunity, to fight a rearguard action to try and tie the UK to the EU in whatever way they can manage, in the hope that Brexit is proved unmanageable, a failure, and we are then forced to return to the fold.
Their purpose is very clear, to damage and destroy Brexit in any way they can. If they are successful and we do not get a full Brexit, completely clear of all influence and control of the EU, then the passions of anti-EU people will not go away.
Indeed, they will grow as the EU starts imposing jurisdiction again, and will inevitably result in a form of civil war within the UK, which will be solely a responsibility of those who have absolutely refused to accept that leaving the EU must mean no longer being controlled by it.
On the other hand, success of Brexit will inevitably mean the destruction of the EU as we know it, as other nations see the freedom the UK enjoys outside the clutches of the bureaucrats in Brussels. The stakes could hardly be higher, but the people have spoken and will, in the end, win, one way or another.
Jim Whitelaw
Macduff, Aberdeenshire
Government connections
Can I get this straight? Boris Johnson is giving his “rule of six” legal force because he doesn’t trust us to adhere to mere guidelines.
Yet at the same time he will this week willingly and deliberately propose breaking an international legal agreement which he personally signed and freely described as a “great deal”, and with no regard for the wider consequences.
I’m sorry, but he has now lost the last shred of any credibility he had personally; and if he continues to bully MPs for his Internal Market Bill he will destroy every last shred of credibility for the UK. Global Britain? Never again would we be able to aspire to that status.
Charles Wood
Birmingham
Covid-19 problems
Concern is being expressed at the rise in the number of Covid-19 cases in the UK, but is this surprising when cabinet members and government advisers have been allowed to flout the rules?
There is an alarming lack of leadership and acceptance of responsibility at the top of our government. All in government should have been told at the beginning that they must always follow the regulations to the letter and if not they would be sacked immediately.
lt is called leadership, but it is sadly lacking at the moment.
Ken Shuttleworth
St Albans, Hertforshire
I gather that we are likely to spend £100bn on some new, potentially fallible software, which still depends on individuals having smartphones (guess what: the most at risk may not possess them).
At the same time, thousands upon thousands of people are being thrown on the scrapheap, a process initiated by putting the economy into an induced coma. I believe that it would be cheaper, and immensely better for the economy, if testing and tracing were to return to its roots: train ordinary people in every town and city to apply testing swabs and employ staff – yes, real people – to interview people and follow up contacts.
Cole Davis
Norwich
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