Your editorial (Reality is dawning for the PM that leaving the EU is a self-harming, 9 July) seems to overlook the number of people in Labour-held constituencies who also voted to leave, though probably for different reasons to Conservatives. How do remainers persuade them that “coming out” won’t be a bed of roses? Many voted to leave as a sign of disenchantment with what they saw as government policies that disregarded their perceived local needs. At present I don’t see anything that has fundamentally changed to alter their justification for thinking that way.
Richard Ehlers
Downham Market, Norfolk
• The government’s Brexit plan continues to rely on an utterly false division between the customs union and the single market. Take the construction products regulation. This is a vital single market regulation ensuring the reliability of information on the performance of construction products. For the construction industry, this is just as important as having no customs tariffs. Doing business is a mixture of smoothly handling both tangible products and intangible processes. We are still doing well because goods, services and people are still flowing smoothly across our borders. It is reckless to mess about with this fragile status quo when it is working so well.
Andrew Wilks
London
• They never thought we could leave, then that we would leave; now they think we will leave in name only. If we believe Airbus, BMW, Siemens etc then we must “save jobs” by capitulation to our new masters. But since these corporations trade with, export to, export from, construct in and obey the rules of eg the US, without the US being in the EU how credible is their threat to abandon billions of pounds of investment in non-EU Britain?
Rodney Atkinson
Author, Europe’s Full Circle
• My wife and I recently cancelled our membership of a healthcare society that we had been with for over 40 years. Membership had been useful but we felt it would not best match future needs. The cancellation was handled efficiently and courteously. Soon after leaving we received letters inviting us to rejoin – with the added bonus of a Marks and Spencer gift card if we do so “today”. Perhaps the EU should consider something similar next April?
Rod Logan
Walton-on-Thames, Surrey
• I’ve calculated (trust me, I’m a statistician) that Mrs May’s Chequers accord is exactly 52% of a full Brexit and is thus completely congruous with “the will of the people”. David Davis proudly recites this cliché so why has he now resigned (Report, 9 July)?
Paul Farrow
Llandaff, Cardiff
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