‘A recovery-boosting deal is the last thing the EU want for the UK’

• SO delighted is your correspondent Lewis Evans with the phrase, “recovery-boosting deal”, he can’t resist using it twice, (No-deal is a threat to lives and livelihoods, October 23).

What will delight him less, but seems to have escaped his notice, is that a deal of any kind is impossible as long as the two protagonists (antagonists?) are talking at cross purposes.

The United Kingdom is half-heartedly interested in a worthwhile deal but resigned to that fact that this is out of the question while the European Union, still smarting and incandescent with rage that the UK has extricated itself from its tender mercies, is only interested in a punishment deal.

A recovery-boosting deal is the last thing they want for the UK. Why would they wish to benefit a new trade rival?

There is no particular reason why a rushed deal has to be cobbled together by the end of the year anyway.

It is only after the transition period ends that both sides will have a clearer picture of the reality of coexisting separately and of what they need from each other.

The EU ought to have calmed itself down a bit by then and be able to negotiate rationally and respectfully which in their present state of turmoil is impossible.

MARTIN KENNEDY
Brewer Street, W1