EACH week our inbox is full of Brexit letters (way more than we have room to print in paper). We thought it would be good to give residents the chance the continue the debate online. Here are the latest selection of letters –
‘Regime change?’
YOUR correspondent compares the Leave campaign to the rise of Fascism in Germany in the 1930s, (Standard July 20).
Ironically, before the EU was formed, the last regime to control the whole of Europe, from the Atlantic to Russia, was, strangely enough, Hitler’s Third Reich.
Bromsgrove OAP
‘Dramatic language…..’
WHAT dramatic language Philip Cooper uses (Lemmings off a cliff) in last week (letters, July 20).
Itoo am one of the 51.9 pe r cent who voted to Leave the EU. I would like to know how he comes to the conclusion that only 37.4 per cent of the total voting population voted for Brexit, the fact is the same percentage voted to Remain, little more than a third as well but more importantly, more than 1.25million more people voted to leave and Britain being a democracy WE WON, SO JUST GET OVER IT!
The second point he makes is that no one knew what Brexit would mean in practice, but David Cameron in his wisdom made sure that he sent every single householder a pamphlet (paid for by the taxpayer)
A £9.3million leafleting onslaught gave David Cameron’s Remain campaign an unfair advantage in the run-up to the June 2016 referendum, the purpose of which, it claimed, was to help the public make an informed decision in the upcoming EU referendum. It detailed all the things that would happen if we left the EU. Didn’t he receive one? I did and along with the majority of voters, decided we still wanted to leave. He lied, cheated and tried to deceive us but we all saw through his and the rest of the Remoaners’ messages of doom and gloom. This never happened as, since the referendum there are more people in jobs than ever before with the employment boom the largest since records began, despite Remoaner insistence the UK economy would deteriorate.
Lastly, he believes we are not under the cuff of the EU, what utter rubbish, how does he explain that the EU is a federal state with no national borders, unelected commissioners governing all aspects of our lives, control of our taxes, trade deals and tariffs, increased immigration and a planned Euro army controlled by Brussels. How he comes to the conclusion that being in the EU allows us to fight for and argue for the things we want is beyond reason, all they want is our money, we have no influence at all as shown in the present negotiations.
Lastly as far as Sajid Javid is concerned as an MP, I think he changes his mind depending on what day of the week it is or what decision suits his current career prospects. Is he a Remainer or a Leaver? Who knows? I certainly don’t!
Let us just get on with freeing ourselves from this costly exercise and start to govern ourselves again.
Anita Hill
‘The only result that matters is the vote’
THERE were letters from two EU Remainers in the Standard of July 20, with one listing meaningless percentages which the writer seemed to have convinced himself invalidated the referendum result. The only result that matters, however, is the one on the day that showed Leave had about one and a quarter million more votes than Remain.
The second letter was from someone who resorted to abuse to prove his point by referring to those who supported Brexit as paranoid and bigoted.
I make no apologies for supporting the Leave campaign because I want to see sovereignty vested in my own Head of State and Government, rather than continue to have British sovereignty ‘pooled’ with that of 450million other people, thus rendering it meaningless.
Also, I wish see my elected government controlling: our justice, laws and courts; our exchequer and what we do with our money; our borders, who enters the UK and how long they may stay, and our fishing waters. If that identifies me as a paranoid bigot, then so be it.
Marie Howard
Bromsgrove
‘We are already among world’s top exporters’
FOR the benefit of Harry Grundy (letters, Standard, August 3) who thinks I was scaremongering, or that we don’t yet trade with the rest of the world, and that Brexit will mean vast savings, these are the facts –
The UK motor industry’s trade body, the SMMT, said in June ‘There is no Brexit dividend for our industry’.
Cars are our second biggest export and the EU is our biggest trading partner!
We are already among the world’s top ten exporters and importers of goods and the world’s second leading exporter of services – we export over £547.5billion to more than 200 countries.
Obviously then, we are not suddenly going to start to trade with the rest of the world anymore than we do now.
While exiting the EU will save us money, the cost of leaving will make us worse off – it’s been shown that each of the Government’s four Brexit scenarios will mean the UK being poorer & cost the taxpayer hundreds of millions of pounds each week.
To cap this, Nigel Farage has now said: “I never said it would be a beneficial thing to leave and everyone would be better off, just that we would be self-governing.”
EU bureaucrats are no worse than those in Whitehall – and we are not downtrodden in this country except for this Government’s austerity measures, which are what made people feel unhappy in the first place.
The majority of people in this country did NOT vote for Brexit – out of the total electorate of 46,501,241, only 17,410,742 voted to leave the EU – which means that 2,9090,499 or nearly 3million more people did not vote for Brexit than did.
However, the worst thing about Brexit is the divisiveness and antagonism it has engendered between people.
What matters in this country more than anything is pragmatism, level-headedness, tolerance, decency and generosity of spirit – that’s what I vote for!
Philip Cooper
‘Sovereignty return is a myth’
MARIE Howard, in her letter, says she wants British sovereignty returned to Britain.
This is to believe in the myth that almost all of our laws have been dictated to us by the European Union. This is not the case.
Almost all of these laws were reached by agreement. Only about 15 per cent resulted in some disagreement.
That is what happens in any community. She also infers that we have lost control of our justice, laws, courts and exchequer.
There is no significant evidence to support this claim.
Brexiters promised that leaving the EU would give an extra £350million every week for the NHS. Even Nigel Farage has admitted this is not true.
Brexiters claim the UK will do better outside the EU because we will negotiate lots of trade deals with other countries.
Liam Fox travelled the world for two years trying to do this. The Result? Nothing.
The US, China and India will not set up such deals with us. About half of the other countries in the world already have trade deals with the EU. But, as they are not in Europe, they have no say in the rules of this trade.
The EU is the world’s biggest trading block. It is the largest trader of manufactured goods and services. To leave the EU trading block will be certain economic suicide. The hopelessness of the Brexiters case was shown recently when David Mundell, a cabinet minister, said that he was excited by the possibility of such a trade deal with New Zealand. Is that the limit of our aspirations? Britain’s annual trade with New Zealand is £1billion. Its trade with Europe is £240billion.
If we leave the EU without a good trade deal it will be a disaster for our motor industry, to name just one industry. This industry employs 84,000 people in the UK. 54 per cent of its output is to the EU. Added to this is the 68 per cent of British made car parts exported to the EU in 2017.
If we leave the EU and have to trade according to World Trade Organisation rules our exports to the EU will be face a tariff barrier of 9.8 per cent. If Brexiters want this they are living on a different planet.
If we leave the EU all vehicles will have to be checked at the ports, in and out. This will cause huge tail-backs along the motorways. This is not one of those ‘scare stories’. The chief executive of Britain’s Freight Transport Association has said that just a six minute delay at a port of entry would cause a 41 mile lorry queue, back along the M20. Every day. That is just one example of the chaos that Gove, Johnson, Fox and Rees-Mogg are preparing to unleash.
Brexiters are like a bunch of children playing carelessly with a big toy built from Lego. Inevitably it will fall apart. The result will be that almost everyone in the UK will be much poorer.
Ann and Neil Holmes
