Trade deals being done at a snail's pace

Dear Sir,

There are only just over 200 days left until we reached the dreaded Brexit day on 29th March, 2019.

After 797 days since the Brexit referendum, Theresa May has finally secured her first trade deal.

Excuse me, if I do not call out the Marching Bands trumpeting out success.

For there is in fact nothing to celebrate.

The Prime Minister's first trade deal was with the five countries of Lesotho, Swaziland, Namibia, Botswana, South Africa and Mozambique which only account for 0.7% of British Exports.

At this snail's rate of progress it will take the Prime Minister 312 years to achieve trade deals with all the other countries in the world.

To make matters worse the Prime Minister's deal with these five countries accounting for 0.7% of our exports was on exactly the same terms as we enjoyed with them whilst members of the E.U. - no improvements on offer whatsoever.

The ardent Brexiteers bang on about how our exporting has been held back by the shackles of the E.U.

Yet Germany, despite according to the ardent Brexiteers being shackled by the E.U., continues to boost its exports to record levels returning a trade surplus in 2016 and 2017 of over 240 billion Euros.

The U.K.'s lack of relative success in exporting is not as a result of being a member of the E.U. but down to our election system which unlike Germany's Proportionate Representation system, does not allow for consistent economic policies over the decades. Instead the U.K. suffers from inconsistent economic policies as it it swings from one extreme on the right with Conservative policies to the left with Labour polices back to the right with Conservative policies and so forth like a drunken sailor.

Meanwhile back in the U.K., Philip Hammond, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, once again raised his head above the parapet revealing that a "No Deal" Brexit will be even worse than previously thought with "large fiscal consequences" damaging the U.K. economy to the tune of about £ 80 billion.

Once again whenever Philip Hammond tries to bring realism to the Brexit debate, the ardent Brexiteers act like Tudor religious zealots calling Philip Hammond a traitor and calling for his head.

The Prime Minister, when asked about Philip Hammond's comments, could only say that a "No Deal" Brexit "wouldn't be the end of the world".

Theresa May with her keystone Brexit policy and it's extremely low bar of "not being the end of the world" must surely go down in history as one of our country's worst ever Prime Ministers because she has allowed party dogma to triumph over the national interest to the detriment of future generations.

Yours faithfully,

Robert Douglas,

2 Hollycroft,

Congleton CW12 4SH