As a Brexiteer, I know we have to stop the Article 50 process to get a good deal

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There is a way out of this Brexit mess. First we need to stop the clock, and the European Court of Justice has given us the means to do that. We can unilaterally stop the Article 50 process, provided a majority of MPs will support it.

This could happen if they understand that the government will use the time gained to prepare properly for a new Article 50 process, while we will stay in the EU until we are adequately prepared to leave. If we regard the Theresa May negotiations as a reconnaissance exercise, we now know where the problems lie. The Leave voters, like me, will understand that we need more time to prepare in order to achieve a satisfactory exit.

It is essential that before restarting the Article 50 process, we have made sufficient preparation for a no-deal Brexit, so that we can realistically walk away from the negotiations at any stage.

Without that preparation we are negotiating from a position of utter weakness. To be ready to enter negotiations again, we must make whatever preparations are needed to make the Irish border work without a hard border, and whatever infrastructure or technical solutions are needed to make our ports, airports, and borders ready for a no-deal exit.

That will probably take several years. Meanwhile the EU may change in ways we cannot predict, and UK politics may also change in unpredictable ways, but in any case suitable preparations must be made before the government can effectively honour the “Leave” instruction given by the electorate in the 2016 referendum.

We can now see that we will need a government, led by a committed Brexiteer, with sufficient support in parliament to achieve Brexit. The party in government needs to have agreed internally what they are trying to achieve, which is (or should be) taking back control of our borders, laws, money, and trade policy, and with a free trade agreement (FTA) with the EU. Any withdrawal agreement will need to be part of a complete FTA, and not a precursor to it.

Then, when we are ready, we can trigger Article 50 again, and refuse to accept the EU’s scheduling plans. We must insist that the FTA is an integral part of the withdrawal agreement, and not to be negotiated after we have left. Otherwise we might just as well leave with no deal, but at least we will be ready for it!

Alan Boswell
Shotley

What happened, David Cameron?

Long, long ago, in a galaxy far, far away David Cameron told us all: “Britain faces a simple and inescapable choice. Stability and strong government with me, or chaos with Ed Miliband.” How’s that going? Cameron, famously, called a referendum for short-term tactical reasons entirely to do with his internal party problems and with no thought about what would happen if Leave won.

After the vote, having promised to sort out the mess he’d created he immediately broke that promise and scuttled off in a monumental act of cowardice. Fast forward to today and chaos reigns.

The Leave vote was, in large part, a symptom of profound economic and social discontent following the largest spending cuts in post-war history, the longest fall in living standards since the Napoleonic Wars and a pervasive distrust of the “establishment”.

This has only got worse since 2016. But rather than addressing this, we have Theresa May doing her forlorn Oliver Twist tour of Europe having run away (note the theme) from the vote in parliament, and Jacob Rees-Mogg and co plotting another coup. This, while telling us all the economists, business, trade experts, the NHS, Ireland etc, are wrong and a no-deal will leave us rich as Croesus by bedtime. Alastair Campbell is also sabotaging the People’s Vote every time he speaks by his overweening arrogance while Labour’s position of being all things to all people has become no longer remotely defensible.

Strong and stable... not so much, Cameron. The only small consolation is that Cameron is now considered by many to be the worst prime minister since Lord North (and if I were Lord North I’d be very confident of getting the judges’ vote in the dance-off). This is, though, a very, very small consolation bearing in mind where his thoughtless and self-centred actions have left his country.

John Murray
Bracknell

What supreme delusion by David Cameron who has no regrets in calling that referendum. His manifesto promise was not in response to the electorate clamouring for a vote on EU membership; it was a vainglorious attempt to stop members of his party banging on about Europe once and for all. This was not serving the nation’s ends but his own.

Graham Powell
Cirencester

Honour the 2016 referendum result with a Final Say

What a sorry mess! The shenanigans in the House of Commons have descended into the squabbling and insults reminiscent of a primary school playground as our elected representatives prove themselves to be incapable of reaching a coherent agreement. The mother of parliaments has become a laughing stock.

If the Commons continues to be gridlocked, I would be prepared to support the increasing calls for a people’s vote on the strict understanding that the electorate is presented with a binary choice between accepting May’s withdrawal agreement and leaving the EU without a deal. Calls for the option to remain in the EU to be included on the ballot should be rejected out of hand. That issue was clearly settled by the “people’s vote” in 2016.

Our representatives in parliament should be acutely aware that reversal of the commitment by both major parties to honour the result of the 2016 referendum will have very significant and far-reaching consequences for democracy in the UK.

David French
Gers

At least we know more about EU now

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear! What on earth is going on?

The one redeeming feature of the last couple of years is that we all know now very much more about the European Union than we did before.

There is no damage-free way forward. John Major, whom I cannot forgive for – in the dying days of his government – rushing through privatisation of our railway network, has sensibly suggested pausing the Brexit process. This is the only way to avoid further dividing the nation.

Perhaps then, when common sense resurfaces again, we can start talking to each other from a better informed place and avoid plunging into years of disruption, pain and suffering.

Steve Edmondson
Haslingfield

A hostile environment for May

Whether she survives the vote of no confidence or not, it is joyous to see the wretched Theresa May on the receiving end of a “hostile environment” for a change.

Sasha Simic
London N16