Brexit is already weakening our economy, god knows what mayhem it’ll unleash when we do eventually leave

With uncertainty about Brexit and utter confusion over no-deal Brexit thanks to Boris Johnson’s antics, the UK has fallen to the bottom of the G7 growth table. The cumulative effect of this uncertainty has led to car manufacturer Toyota pausing car production in the UK, while house price growth halted in August. Business confidence is also low, with a steep fall in lending to businesses and evidence of the worst decline in the car industry since 2001.

All other advanced economies performed better than Britain in the second quarter of 2019. Canada topped the G7 with strong growth of 0.9 per cent in the second quarter. The US and Japan both posted solid, if unspectacular, growth of 0.5 per cent and 0.4 per cent respectively.

Back in 2015, the then chancellor George Osborne proudly declared that Britain was “growing faster than any other major advanced economy” after the UK outpaced the rest of the G7 in 2014. The present chancellor, Sajid Javid, cannot make such a boast when he presents the government spending review this week. The UK’s second-quarter contraction was partly caused by stockpiling in the run-up to the original Brexit deadline at the end of March. This has dragged the economy down.

The solution for saving the economy is dealing with the unresolved and lingering issue of no-deal Brexit. No one knows whether we are coming or going. It is time to take the bull by its horn and sort it before 31 October, otherwise the country will face mayhem.

Baldev Sharma
Harrow

Hong Kong protesters deserve better than the UK

Who doesn’t need a laugh during this self-made political catastrophe?

Apparently, there are calls for Hong Kong citizens to be given UK residency rights. That’s a joke right?

The democracy protesters are to be offered the chance to come and live in the UK under an unelected PM with a track record of offensive comments to minorities: a man who as mayor of London purchased an illegal water cannons and who still has the jammy smear of Garden Bridge corruption clinging to his wobbly jowls.

This defeats irony.

Amanda Baker
Edinburgh

What’s wrong with leaving without a deal?

I had a vote given to me by the then administration of David Cameron on 23 June 2016.

I exercised this right to vote Leave.

In 2017, the same government with Theresa May at the helm then triggered Article 50, meaning that on 29 March we would leave the EU.

When I voted, I voted to leave. Article 50 provided the mandate that if we had no deal by 29 March then we would leave without a deal.

I, like millions of others that voted, am still happy to leave. We knew what we voted for then, we still know what we want now, and with the anti-democratic institution that is most of parliament, and of Remainers, I am more resolute now than I was ever before that we need to come out on 31 October.

As a newspaper, you have a responsibility to report both sides.

Karen Smith-Anscombe
Address supplied

No deal was never on the table

James Gordon on Sunday 1 September in the Letters page said that people did vote for a no-deal Brexit because Theresa May said “no deal is better than a bad deal”. However, this was at the general election where she lost her majority.

In 2016, none of the Leave campaigns even mentioned the possibility of no deal. The people voted in 2016 for Brexit that was sold as a positive thing for the country where we could have a great deal, and therefore you cannot honestly state they voted for it when it wasn’t even mentioned.

Nicki Bartlett
Cardiff

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We need a general election

Britain is a shining beacon of parliamentary democracy. It prides itself throughout history as the mother of all democracies. Each party has put their spirited and passionate argument before the people and the British people have voted to leave the European Union in a free and transparent referendum.

Their will must therefore be respected. However, Boris Johnson’s decision to suspend the parliament in the midst of the Brexit furore is a misguided decision. It rips democracy apart and threatens the political and social fabric of our society. A general election remains the only way out of the present impasse.

Dr Munjed Farid Al Qutob
London NW2