The Reader: Mismanaged Brexit is set to damage the UK for generations

WE ARE just months away from Brexit. Negotiating it requires a strong, stable and effective leader to get the best deal for our fractious country. Instead, we have Prime Minister Theresa May.

Her leadership is as credible as some of this year’s candidates on The Apprentice. On two separate occasions she has hastily presented her poorly negotiated proposals as done deals. On both occasions the deals have unravelled and several Cabinet ministers have resigned, leaving her in disarray.

Whichever way you voted, it is clear that Brexit is being mismanaged by our political leaders. We need a second referendum to give them clear instructions on what we mean by leaving the EU.

Otherwise, the best we can hope for is a half-baked mess that will hinder this country’s development for generations.
Nicholas Pascal

FOR Theresa May to agree this highly damaging deal, with our being eternally trapped in the customs union and paying the hideous €40 billion divorce bill, is indeed the greatest humiliation this country has sustained since the Suez crisis.

This contempt for democracy will not be forgiven, as the Tory party will find out at the next election.
Howard Ricklow

EDITOR'S REPLY

Dear Nicholas and Howard

I wonder what future historians will make of Brexit? Will they see its origins in long-term forces dividing Britain from the EU — a different legal tradition, history, geography, an imbalanced nation dominated by London, perhaps — which were always going to result in some sort of break? Or will they put it down to bad luck, incompetence and the individual selfishness of a few?

I think history is shaped by chance and individual choices — and if that’s right, then you are both right to blame our leaders for messing this up. Sure, take it out on Theresa May but Jeremy Corbyn is hugely culpable too. And does anyone remember Vince Cable? His inadequacies haven’t helped. But in the end it’s the Government which makes the choices and if things turn out badly, as they seem to be, we will know who to blame. By then, of course, it will be too late — and the verdict will be in the hands of the historians.

Julian Glover, Associate Editor (Comment)

Unjust that my EV quote is so high

Your feature on clean air was very interesting [“Future London — Clean Air”, November 13].

I’ve been the owner of a Nissan Leaf for just over a year now. I wasn’t expecting my insurer to quadruple my insurance, on the basis that there was insufficient data for insurers to take a gamble on insuring electric vehicles.

However, I would never go back to a petrol car, notwithstanding the fact on longer journeys you have to plan to the last detail and allow roughly an hour for a full charge.
Elaine Tapley

We must not go overboard in ‘plugging’ electric cars. They produce no tail pipe emissions, but do produce significant amounts of particulates, potentially the most harmful type of emissions, from tyre and road wear. Nor do they reduce congestion or deaths on roads.
David Harrison

UK is significant in anti-doping war

I WAS disappointed to read Dick Pound’s comments on the current debate over the role of the World Anti-Doping Agency and its engagement with Russia [“Pound’s verbal volley for UKAD”, November 13].

For the past three years, the UK’s anti-doping body (UKAD), at the invitation of WADA, has delivered for the suspended Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) a testing programme, as well as advice and training, for the organisation so it could fulfil WADA’s road map to a return to compliance. We were doing this up to the day that RUSADA was deemed compliant.

This clearly demonstrates the constructive approach UKAD has taken, and we have sought to maintain an open and positive relationship with WADA, the anti-doping community and athletes during this difficult period.
Trevor Pearce
Chair, UK Anti-Doping