When will this government realise that we can’t dictate to the EU?

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We need to stop behaving like the bully in the playground and demonstrate some diplomacy skills (Reuters)

When is this government going to acknowledge that we are not in a position to dictate to the EU? Thanks to the awful Brexit agreement that they have inflicted on us, we are rightly perceived as punching above our weight.

The constant drip-feed of hostility towards the EU may please the Tory faithful, but does nothing to improve our standing. Our international reputation, already damaged, will be in tatters if we unilaterally scrap the protocol that Boris himself negotiated.

We need to stop behaving like the bully in the playground and demonstrate some diplomacy skills – if anyone in the government can remember what they are.

Lynda Newbery

Bristol

Reneging on international agreements

I read your editorial on 16 May with interest and agreement. In the frantic rush to “Get Brexit Done”, a deal was signed by the prime minister which appears now to have come back to haunt him with its ramifications.

I personally cannot stand this kamikaze and strident government attitude. Instead of stating that maybe the full implications of this complex agreement weren’t fully appreciated in a moderate and calm way, they go all out in a blaze of inglorious and unstatesmanlike behaviour.

Being a Remainer, I didn’t agree with the whole premise at all but fully recognised that ardent Brexiteers must be squirming now at this impasse, which was always going to come down the tracks. This brinkmanship and reneging on our international agreements appears to be a type of “faux Conservatism” and one that is ruining our reputation across the world of being a trustworthy party.

Picking fights on an industrial scale is not a good look, because it radiates political immaturity and is not sustainable in our complex and divisive world.

Judith A Daniels

Great Yarmouth

The law of their rule

You can’t accuse our government of not being flexible as urged on the EU over the Northern Ireland protocol.

Suella Braverman, for example, has overturned the advice of the previous attorney general, the eminent Sir Geoffrey Cox QC, by advising it is lawful for the government to renege on the protocol by unilaterally setting aside obligations of an international treaty.

Priti Patel has repeatedly overridden Home Office legal advice on immigration and asylum cases costing the taxpayer millions of pounds and further damaging Britain’s reputation abroad.

This is not so much the rule of law – more the law of their rule.

Roger Hinds

Surrey

Get a better job

Maybe Home Office minister Rachel Maclean, who said real people struggling in the current economic climate her government bears ultimate responsibility for should “better protect themselves” by “taking on more hours or moving to better-paid jobs”, should lead by example and move to another job, somewhere outside of government.

But, by all means ministers, please keep insulting the people you need to re-elect you in a couple of years, while doing nothing visible at all to help those same people survive double-digit inflation, empty shelves and soon, I suspect, rising unemployment.

Then we’ll finally be shot of you all after the next general election and capable people can take charge.

Ian Henderson

Norwich

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Pledge to resign

Yet again, John Rentoul provides an unusual take on current events. He refers to Keir Starmer’s pledge to resign as “going to come back to bite him”, yet Starmer’s stance has been widely praised and welcomed as a return to some honour in politics.

I believe the polls also reflect this. He may well be held to the most stringent standards but I have confidence that he lives his life according to them – many of us do, as demonstrated by the reaction to Partygate.

He then goes on to compare the fields of potential leaders in both parties. It is clear to me that there is no comparison, as the Tories have really only sycophants as potential frontrunners who are all or almost all implicated in the incompetence of the current government.

The statement that “coronavirus wasted the first half of parliament” is extremely curious – does a pandemic not warrant good and focused governance in order to protect citizens? (Obviously that didn’t happen.)

It also ignores the extreme reforms that are just about to take place in regards to our rights; to protest, to have independent oversight of elections, to be able to vote without photo ID etc – very meaningful reforms. but not in the way the vast majority would want.

Amanda McIntyre

Robertsbridge