Wrong way to get best Brexit deal

Peter Steggles from Longnor describes, correctly, that Brexit talks are a farce. The whole Brexit process is a catastrophe for this nation for the following two reasons:

1. This government’s ability to treat everyone with unilateral contempt.

2. The unacceptable timetable involved.

Article 50 should have been triggered the minute David Cameron resigned. Had this been done we would be leaving the EU in less than a year. But the establishment had to investigate ways in which the referendum result could be reversed. Why else the delay? If any Conservative MP from the region would like to respond, I would be interested in the “real reason.” I await their replies with eager anticipation.

This display of contempt was quite breathtaking, but then up steps Theresa May to call the Brexit, sorry the “20-point lead in the opinion poll” General Election. Possibly the most cynical election ever called in this country.

Now I am no expert in politics, and since no Conservative MP thought fit to mount a serious challenge to this form of “leadership” it seems that the Conservative definition of a good Prime Minister is one who converts a majority government into a minority one, but this does seem to me to be politically pretty stupid.

The timing involved in destroying what bargaining strength we had days before Brexit negotiations were due to start was impeccable. But instead of some bright spark at the Conservative party saying we badly need to learn lessons from this disaster, we have Philip Hammond come along announcing there will be an additional three-year transitory period after we leave the EU. Instead of leaving next June, we leave in March 2022 at the earliest.

As for the opposition, well Sir Keir Starmer has confirmed the Labour position on transition is that of at least four years after leaving. I wonder if the EU is concerned about whether or not the UK is taking this whole Brexit process seriously?, because it appears that it isn’t.

Each time this Government has treated the UK electorate with contempt, it also, clearly has treated our EU colleagues with the same contempt. If it seriously believes that this is the correct attitude to display in order to secure the best Brexit deal ever, it is a, deluded, b, being dangerously naive, c in cloud cuckoo land, or d, all of the above. If you treat people with contempt, you usually provoke retaliation. That is the book of life page 1.

Mr D N Grant, Ludlow