Sir Ivan Rogers’ resignation will turn out to be Brexit’s ‘Stalingrad’ moment

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Sir Ivan Rogers resigned as UK ambassador to the EU (AP)

I suspect the resignation of our ambassador to the EU, Sir Ivan Rogers, widely considered the UK’s most skilled diplomatic negotiator, may be Brexit’s “Stalingrad”. Rogers has been chief adviser to Chancellor Ken Clarke, chief of staff to Leon Brittan in the European Commission and principal private secretary to Prime Minister Tony Blair.

He was European and global affairs counsel to David Cameron before his EU appointment and has a reputation for being a “punctiliously objective and rigorous” adviser. In his resignation letter, he issued the forlorn hope that his staff continues “to challenge ill-founded arguments and muddled thinking” and “speak the truth to those in power”.

It appears he has been hounded out of office by Mrs May’s Europhobic backwoodsmen for warning it may take 10 years to complete negotiations between the UK and EU. His loss makes successful negotiation unlikely and it will be interesting to see if the Prime Minster delays triggering article 50 or sticks to her ill-advised March deadline.

John Cameron

St Andrews

Sir Ivan Rogers’ decision to quit as the UK’s ambassador to the EU before Brexit talks begin at the end of March, raises alarm bells not just about the coming talks, but about the Government’s ability to actually proceed with these negotiations. Rogers is regarded as one of the leading experts on the EU and without him Brexit becomes an almost impossible task.

David Cameron’s original decision not to have a “plan B” in place for Brexit, not only displayed political arrogance taken to a ridiculous extreme, but arguably indicated the actual scale of difficulty in putting together an alternative package to the European Project.

Sir Ivan has already indicated that it would take at least ten years to negotiate new trade terms with Europe. The UK has integrated EU legislation to the point that knowing how to unravel such complex institutions will be a major operation. Certainly something that could not be resolved within two years from the triggering of Article 50. We forget that our politicians are often only figure-heads for their departments, and that it is people like Sir Ivan who actually have to do the real work. And Brexit will surely fail without an army of Rogers in place.

Paul Dodenhoff

London

With Sir Ivan Rogers, it has begun. A fascinating struggle: the renowned, ponderous, initiative-burying, procedure-bound civil service juggernaut confronting the intricately complex Brexit “programme” of dismantling forty years of European legislation. Worth relishing and analysing for future generations.

Mike Bor

London

Why is Nigel Farage acting gleefully to Sir Ivan Rogers’ resignation? He knows Brexit will destabilise democracy in the UK. Farage is a man who sees opportunity for the far right when our social structure crumbles.

Mark Grey

London

The UN must find its teeth

Right after the UN Security Council passed its resolution 2334 condemning the Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem Israel declared that it will not abide by the contents of the resolution. It even denounced President Obama and Secretary of State Kerry and accused them of cooking up the resolution behind its back. The UN needs to put some teeth into its resolutions, just as it has imposed sanctions many times before.

Mahmoud El-Yousseph

Ohio, USA

The West has no right to create an independent Kurdistan

In his letter arguing the case for an independent Kurdistan comprising territory from five existing countries, Steve Ford admonishes the West for failing to deliver or even contemplate such a scenario.

The idea that the West has the moral, political or military right to deliver an independent Kurdistan is typical of the orientalist thinking permeating through Western society.

An independent Kurdistan would undoubtedly provide a stable alternative to the chaos ravaging other areas of the Middle East, however it is not for the West to deliver it, lest we arrive at another Sykes-Picot or Israel/Palestine scenario in the not too distant future.

Cian Carlin

London