I READ Samuel Fletcher’s letter – Brexit joy jobs boost (Keighley News, March 23) – in my local, where I often chat to a fellow retiree, who regularly bemoans the fact ‘we voted out so why aren’t we out?’! He has a point.

Neither side of the Brexit campaign made it clear exactly the process that would be involved in actually leaving. Certainly not the tabloid press, which overwhelmingly supported the leave campaign, and subsequently has trumpeted how well we are doing since the vote.

The point is we haven’t actually left! We’ve merely started the process, and in the meantime the Government is writing a myriad of EU laws/treaties into post-Brexit legislation.

We can be sure of one thing. If we end up operating under WTO rules, the country as a whole will be poorer in the short, medium and quite possibly long term.

Negotiating trade deals takes time, years in fact – negotiations to export just pigs trotters to China are ongoing after two years. The EU/Canada deal took ten! Trading outside the single market is going to be very hard. So, brace yourselves for a rough ride!

JOHN VAN DER GUCHT Cross Hills