The government’s shirking of responsibilities to satisfy Brexiteers is troubling but not unexpected

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The UK’s blatant disregard to commitments already made in negotiations on a future trade deal with the EU has broken new ground, even for this government.

Months were spent in negotiating the withdrawal agreement and the Northern Ireland protocol, preventing a hard border within the island of Ireland and providing assurances in the areas of citizens’ rights and Britain’s financial obligations.

The withdrawal agreement is not optional, but a treaty which was ratified by the current British government, which it is now seeking to undermine through publishing legislation that will attempt to override it.

To think that the government is prepared to shirk its responsibilities to two international agreements to satisfy rabid Brexiteer concerns is deeply troubling, but not unexpected.

With the stakes upped and as we hurtle towards a potential no-deal Brexit, it will be the UK, including the businesses and citizens already adversely impacted, that will be affected most.

The UK must abide by what it has agreed to do, to stand by the withdrawal agreement it negotiated, indeed renegotiated, and protect the interests of those in the UK.

Should it fail to do this and we end up with a no-deal Brexit, the British people will only have the government to blame for this.

Alex Orr

Edinburgh

Europe tensions

Writers such as Sean O’Grady and Tom Peck seem to be getting their knickers in a bit of a twist over Brexit?  Perhaps one of the grown-ups could point out to the nursery class that just because you don't like something doesn't mean it's bad. All it means is you don't like it.  

Observing Europe in all its glorious reality – Spain and Catalonia, Putin and eastern Europe, Turkey and Greece, Poland and Hungary, and Belarus. Is it not more likely that any war is going to be a rather warm one rather than a cold one? A very good reason for social distancing perhaps?

Maggie Owen

Hockwold

Covid surge

Given yesterday’s coronavirus figures, the UK is now ahead of where France was on the 14 August when the government introduced quarantine from that country. Will we now introduce quarantine for travellers arriving in the UK from the UK?

The sudden sharp increase is not due to testing, which has remained relatively static for the last month. And it hasn’t been long enough for it to be due to children returning to school. We are where France and Spain are, but as usual, three weeks behind.

Rachael Padman

Newmarket, Suffolk

Johnsonitis outbreak

There is a new disease sweeping the country and it started in this incompetent, inept, underqualified government. It's called Johnsonitis and the main symptoms are: lack of responsibility, lack of accountability, avoidance strategies and the mechanisms of projection and displacement.  

This morning in my local paper someone blamed Johnson's aides for the prime minister’s woeful performance at PMQs last week. He's the PM, he should know what he's talking about without aides to tell him what's happening and how to respond. Matt Hancock is doing it too, blaming young people yesterday for spikes in Covid-19 rates when he and the government are to blame with their woeful contradictory guidance.  

"Don't kill granny"? After the performance regarding care homes, Hancock? Robert Jenrick again this morning, stating we must exercise caution – what, like you did during lockdown? Hypocrisy is another symptom of Johnsonitis. Blame everybody but yourself is the "new normal". Sickening and toxic, they are the greater illness, they are the political cause of all those deaths.

Richard Kimble

Leeds

Organised crime group?

The Tories are planning to classify Extinction Rebellion as an "organised crime group". Given the government's disastrous record on dealing with Covid-19, isn't that label a far better fit for the Tories rather than the members of XR?  

Sasha Simic

London

Brexit we voted for

Sean O’Grady ends his column by asking if this is the Brexit the country voted for. It is precisely what the country voted for. As past promises and misleading statements on the realities of Brexit are piled on, it is becoming appallingly apparent that the endgame of severing all ties with the EU is falling into place. What no Brexiteer has ever been able or willing to explain is if world trade terms are so wonderful, why is it every country capable of doing so seeks to negotiate “better terms” in trade treaties with its peers?  

As political rogues throughout history have always done, Brexiteers have wrapped themselves in the national flag and gulled the nation into the delusion that they can “take back control”. As Samuel Johnson pithily observed, “patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel”. It is hard to imagine a bigger bunch of scoundrels than those currently leading us into the brave new world of broken treaties, weakened service industries, and a disintegrating union.

Robin J Bulow

Clacton-on-Sea

Negotiation charade

Boris Johnson has said that a no-deal Brexit would be a good outcome for Britain. If this is the case why on earth bother with the charade of negotiations at all? Something isn’t really credible in this claim.

Johnson is as mendacious as Trump, inventing a new reality for every scenario, justifying every error and whitewashing all risks that his own incompetence creates.

Trump was right. Johnson really is just a UK version of himself.

Simon Carrel

Maidenhead