AS SAID in the Echo letter 30th December, the more you look into the magic trade deal the more you see how much we have lost.

I don't see how it could be clearer Brexit has been and is one enormous gamble. And all the more so in the hands of Boris Johnson.

There is so much we had within the EU : freedom to move into and work in the EU; customs free trade throughout Europe; 30 major EU free trade agreements with countries across the world.

This vast open free trading platform has now for the UK been bound into 2,000 pages of hyper regulations.

The trade deal is tariff and quota free only as long as the UK complies with EU standards and regulations, and visa versa.

Which means custom forms for every bucket, or side of lamb, or screwdriver, or bottle of wine, that moves between the UK and the EU, and visa versa.

And of course passport controls for all travelling into the EU.

And international trade agreements, what will we do but seek to renegotiate deals we already had within the EU with Canada, Singapore, Japan, and many others.

And remember Northern Ireland stays in the Single Market with then huge added customs complications.

So as for now heading into the sunlit uplands that is as much wild Brexit fantasy as the £350 million a week for the NHS.

Michael Gove and others speak of a "bumpy road" ahead.

But then as always with Brexit it is slogans, cliches, and random meanderings.

Never spelling out the truth.

Bumpy meaning years of struggle as we lose full unimpeded trading, amounting to £800 billion a year, within the largest trading block in the world.

And that along with much the same value in service industry agreements now all blowing in the wind, as evidenced by UK largest banks losing huge value on stock exchanges.

Stuart Marshall

Parkstone