In search of a way out of Brexit deadlock

When a government is spectacularly defeated on a major plank of its legislative programme, the expected outcome is surely a general election, but this is routinely dismissed in your pages, in favour of “constitutional devices” (Editorial, 16 January), which would inevitably be protracted.

However, eventually joining Labour in a no-confidence vote could be the only way for those Tories who cannot stomach no deal to avoid a cliff edge, as Theresa May runs down the clock. Moreover, a general election has the clear advantage of setting the UK’s relationship with the EU in the context of a broad policy programme, rather than prioritising an inherently divisive issue. The Tories could put whatever version of the May (or no) deal their fractured party can agree upon directly to the public.

Labour could propose a time-limited negotiation with the EU to achieve its preferred option of closer alignment, followed by submitting any agreement to a, by then, reconstituted electorate, for consideration against the merits of retaining membership. The election result would be based not only on a clear choice on Brexit, but on the proffered solutions to the scourges of poverty, inequality, homelessness and environmental degradation which threaten the wellbeing of us all.
Dr Anthony Isaacs
London

• The suggestion in your editorial that Mrs May should reach out to her opponents in other political parties fails to appreciate the level of cynicism that her approach to the EU represents. It is now apparent that her real fear is that a softer Brexit negotiated with members of other parties would lead to a permanent Conservative split.

She clearly appreciates that no deal would do immense damage to the economy but believes it to be a price worth paying in order to keep her party intact. The clock will now be run down.
Rick Hanley
Colchester, Essex

• Your well-observed editorial suggests a Hobson’s choice for Theresa May, but this doesn’t do justice to a sorry tale of such epic proportions. Having steered a course as monomaniacally as Moby Dick’s Captain Ahab; entered a contract of Faustian proportions with the DUP; presided over a party with even more Mad Hatters than Alice in Wonderland, and exhibited an insatiable appetite for deploying petards with which to hoist herself; Theresa May’s late conversion to cross-party consultation neatly demonstrates (in Westminster’s political cathedral) the tortured predicament of the conflicted martyr: “the last temptation is the greatest treason / to do the right thing for the wrong reason” – and we’re still nowhere near the last chapter.
Paul McGilchrist
Colchester, Essex

• Parliament debated Theresa May’s Brexit bill for a week in December, and for another week this month. If Mrs May wants to know what are the views of “senior parliamentarians” – or indeed any parliamentarians – she could read Hansard. After all, taking back control must mean that all those parliamentarians must have been saying something helpful during 10 days of debate.
Christopher Ward
Hennock, Devon

• Having been in Parliament Square for the meaningful vote on the May Brexit Deal on Tuesday evening, I experienced a surprising phenomenon. It was a carnival atmosphere, with leave and remain supporters respecting each other. This was democracy in action.

I urge all politicians to extend the opportunity to further the cause of democracy by agreeing to a vote on remaining in Europe being offered to the British people. The fearmongering that we will be further divided was not apparent on Tuesday evening. We can rise above our different perspectives, and do what is best for all of us in this country.
Jane Dodds
Leader, Welsh Liberal Democrats

• Watching the scenes of jubilation by remainers and Brexit supporters alike following parliament’s vote on the Brexit deal, a thought should be spared for those who made the vote happen: Gina Miller, who was reportedly accused of “trying to ‘subvert’ democracy” (‘It isn’t safe for me to go outside’: what the Article 50 battle cost Gina Miller, 12 November), and the high court judges who, at the time, were dubbed “enemies of the people” by the Daily Mail and other outlets.
Dr Aldo Zammit Borda
Senior lecturer in international law, Anglia Ruskin University

• The central issue in the Brexit saga now is legitimacy. The Brexiters denounce any sliding away from Brexit as illegitimate and a betrayal, a line the prime minister has also pushed relentlessly. This is going to be even more central to their pitch in the new scenario.

It’s crucial that this is rebutted firmly. As your editorial says, a second vote and devices such as citizens’ assemblies “are not denials of democracy but a reinforcement of it”. The last referendum had a slim majority for leave, but we can’t assume it would have been there had the serious abuses that have now come to light not taken place. We need to know what the present electorate think should happen now, not the one that was in place nearly three years before the date we currently plan to leave. The legitimacy battle is there to be won, provided it is taken on.
Dr Ron Glatter
Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire

• I agree with your leader about the calamitous debacle that government has created for itself. It now needs a complete and holistic healing by cross-party negotiation and a shed-load of olive branches.

But that is what you get when you have a control freak for a prime minister who is extremely reluctant to loosen her intractable hold on proceedings and reach out to others.

Her stoicism and commitment have been rightly commended but she will not countenance other legitimate and knowledgeable input. I also entirely concur with your comments that the EU became the scapegoat of all the myriad ills affecting this country and we will not recover until this fact is widely acknowledged and accepted. The world must be astonished. The EU must be appalled. The country has been consummately let down by vested interests, rightwing ideological Brexiters and their narrow and shortsighted focus on their concerns and theirs only. Shame on all of them.
Judith Daniels
Great Yarmouth, Norfolk

• We may tut, roll our eyes and look in bemusement at the appalling situation dragging on across the pond. However, as the US government shutdown extends into an unprecedented 26th day, we should remind ourselves that the UK government has, to all intents and purposes, been shut down (achieving absolutely nothing) since 23 June 2016.

As the abysmal, inane, pointless record belongs to Britain, you could say we’ve trumped America in being a national embarrassment.
Amanda Baker
Edinburgh

• Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com

• Read more Guardian letters – click here to visit gu.com/letters

• Do you have a photo you’d like to share with Guardian readers? Click here to upload it and we’ll publish the best submissions in the letters spread of our print edition