A new ferry service between Ireland and France shows how willing companies are to bypass the UK

It should come as no surprise that leading shipping company DFDS is to shortly commence a direct ferry service from Rosslare in Ireland to Dunkirk in France (‘New ferry freight route opens between France and Ireland’, 29 November).

After all, why would Irish companies want the added expense of moving goods – either way – through a third country?

This new route will expand, and the traditional routes through Wales will decrease until they become unviable and eventually close. This in turn will lead to job losses in an area that is already way below the average for employment in the UK; and then, unsurprisingly, the calls for Welsh independence will increase significantly.

This development is only the beginning of companies and other countries bypassing the UK, either tangibly or metaphorically, concluding our transformation into a small, xenophobic, isolated country awash in the North Sea with little or no influence on the world stage.

Robert Boston

Kingshill

The House of Lords, in its scrutiny of the UK Internal Market Bill, would be wise and creative in adding an aspirational clause to the Bill in question (‘House of Lords inflicts government defeat over devolved consent to Internal Market Bill powers’, 24 November).

A necessary counterpart to a strong UK internal market is a strong UK-wide infrastructure. However, there appears to be no reference to such in the Bill. It is time for peers to correct this omission. To this effect, the House of Lords should add a clause stressing the imperative of UK-wide infrastructure to the efficiency and dynamics of a strong UK internal market.

For example, the reinstatement of the Anglo-Scottish border rail lines are crucial interconnections for freight and passengers alike, and necessary in the event of building a tunnel to Belfast to fully join up both main parts of the UK internal market.

UK-wide infrastructure is also a political imperative in terms of sustaining the United Kingdom, as well as its post-Brexit competitiveness.

Were the House of Lords to add such a clause to the Bill, parliament as a whole would have some form of yardstick in which to press the government to be pro-active on the infrastructural front, which is necessary for the efficiency of the UK’s internal market.

John Barstow  

Pulborough, West Sussex

Will any of those protesting against lockdown and other Covid safety measures sign a legally binding document whereby they may not avail themselves of any services provided freely by the NHS, should they feel unwell or think they may have caught the virus?

Beryl Wall

London W4

Lizzie Dearden is clearly anxious and worried about the abuse she is subjected to as a result of her wonderful reports (‘Abuse has become the price I pay just for being a journalist’, 28 November).

It is so much more difficult to be brave and carry on while constantly being worried. What Lizzie is doing deserves full praise and appreciation. She encompasses admirably that famous saying, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good women to do nothing.”

Be assured, Lizzie, for everyone who abuses, there are hundreds who fully support you, even if you don’t get supportive emails.

D Corey

Redcar  

We will never get a change of electoral system while it suits the two main parties to have the current one.

Voters in marginal constituencies decide elections. I live in one of the safest Labour seats in the country. The Labour MP has a job for life. Conservative MPs in safe Conservative seats have a job for life. Principled MPs who have deserted their party have shown that it is the party, not the candidate, that matters.

Philip Pound

Sydenham, London