Letter to the editor: 'No Brexit deal is still better than a bad Brexit deal'

At last on June 12 the EU formally accepted there will be no further extension to the Brexit transitional arrangements beyond December 2020. Yet on June 18,Mr Legge wrote in to the Chronicle & Echo hoping deckchairs could be rearranged, the band play on.

He cited a report sponsored by the inaptly named Best for Britain campaign to undermine repeated democratic votes for Brexit. Written by the Social Market Foundation, it projects a worst-case scenario, purporting to be neutral by omitting any mitigating policy options. Well, obviously, we would be sunk without changing course.

The EU is a protectionist league pursuing ever closer political and military union, yet resisting a single market for services, the UK’s largest export sector.

It failed on coronavirus and declined to condemn China’s threat to Hong Kong.

Trying to tie us to its rules –indeed future rules on which we would have no say – and to punish us so as to discourage others from leaving, is to cut its nose to spite its face.

EU/UK trade is declining, opportunities to grow expanding elsewhere.

If denied a zero-tariff Free Trade Agreement, trading under WTO rules creates certainty for business, a genuine level playing field.

No deal is better than a bad deal, enables use of non-EU policy instruments, and still leaves open an FTA for later on when the EU sees sense.

Peter True,

by email