Brexit will increase Britain’s prosperity – Yorkshire Post Letters

I HAVE good news for Ken Cooke and John Turley (The Yorkshire Post, November 30). We will be more prosperous, not less, on leaving the EU, given vigorous and assertive government.

We have been haemorrhaging finances and jobs to the continent but now we have the chance to reverse the flow.

Take the automotive industry. The British car market (before Covid) was about two million sales per year. Cars made in the EU had about 1.4 million of these sales and British cars about 0.3 million. What a tremendous boost it would be if these figures could be reversed over a period of, say, five to 10 years.

Let no-one say it cannot be done. We had an even greater share of our own market before we joined the EU (then Common Market). There is similar transformation possible in several other areas of manufacturing. Unfortunately, the above would mean financial loss to the EU countries but, as Mr Cooke and Mr Turley rightly say, there are 27 of them so it should not be too painful for any individual country.

From: Alan Machin, Bessacarr, Doncaster.

BOTH Ken Cooke and John Turley claim that the UK could suffer more from a No Deal outcome, because the £80bn trade deficit in 2019 would be split between the remaining 27 members.

Ken Cooke crudely assumes each country has equal shares and John Turley states the impact as being ‘‘diluted’’ among all the other countries.

I don’t know if they have bothered to check the trade difference for each country or chose to ignore them. But what they claim could not be further from the truth. The largest trade deficit was with Germany at £22bn; once you include just Spain and Belgium this is greater than all the remaining countries added together. The deficit for Germany in goods alone is £29bn; no wonder they are desperate to sell us cars which are not subject to any tariffs.

Additionally, trade deals with the rest of the world will now be open to us, we can replace many goods from outwith the EU.

From: Thomas Jefferson, Batty Lane, Howden, Goole.

YOUR correspondents Ken Cooke and John Turley argue that if there is no trade agreement with the EU then we will suffer more than the EU, but it’s a spurious argument.

Most exporters will be no worse off than they were in pre-referendum days as any extra costs in tariffs and paperwork has already been met by the fall in the value of the pound which has not had a negative affect on our growth rate relative to the EU. Those facing greater costs can be compensated via increased tariff revenues.

The attempts of these two gentlemen, and others, to depict Brexit Britain as isolationists dreaming of Empire (The Yorkshire Post, November 27) is risible. This country has internationalism in its DNA which isn’t going to change. The only Empire in sight is the EU with its desperate attempts to keep us under its control.

From: James Bovington, Church Grove, Horsforth.

THOSE who support a no deal trading arrangement between Britain and the EU will doubtless dismiss the formation of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership between China, South Korea, Japan, Australia and New Zealand plus others. The 15 nations involved cover a third of the world’s economy and are apparently structuring their agreement so that participating countries have ‘an incentive to look within the trade region for suppliers’.

Britain is unique in swimming against the tide and whatever trade deal is done either with the EU or other countries such as Japan will be much less advantageous than what EU members enjoy.

Time will tell if the Scots have the courage to abandon England, a country presently mired in nasty negative nostalgia which has ignored the express will of the parliaments and business leaders in the three devolved nations who all asked for extensions to the UK-EU transition.

Who could blame them?

From: Richard Wilson, Chair, Leeds for Europe, Riverside Way, Leeds.

IT was good to read that groups such as Liverpool for Europe will be joining Yorkshire’s own pro-European Union campaigners at protests outside a proposed Conservative Party office in Leeds (The Yorkshire Post, November 25). But those demonstrations will not be until next year. Something we can do now is caution Labour MPs against supporting a dreadful ‘‘Bad Boris Brexit’’.

An announcement of terms agreed with Brussels to replace our transitional arrangements could come any day now. It is expected to be hugely damaging to Britain, breaking virtually all of the cynical Vote Leave promises, turning “Project Fear” into “Project Grim Reality”.

Labour MPs could reportedly still be whipped into supporting it, though. True, a vote against the deal would be risky. An “unholy alliance” of Labour and ‘Brextremist’ Tories might be enough to scupper it – meaning an even more catastrophic No-Deal Brexit.

But if Labour MPs simply abstain, Mr Johnson has enough votes to push his deal through – and then be left to answer for the consequences for years to come – without hiding behind a shield of Labour support. Boris Johnson does not need Labour votes. Britain does need an opposition ready to expose Brexit’s failings – and ready, if in power, to follow Joe Biden’s example and restore our relationships with Europe.

Support The Yorkshire Post and become a subscriber today. Your subscription will help us to continue to bring quality news to the people of Yorkshire. In return, you’ll see fewer ads on site, get free access to our app and receive exclusive members-only offers. Click here to subscribe.