EU now ‘on back foot’ over Brexit thanks to Boris Johnson – Yorkshire Post Letters

TIME and time again in the five years since we voted to leave the EU in the 2016 referendum, the UK has been painted as the ‘bad guy’ in negotiations simply because we would not cave in to the EU’s diktats by surrendering our sovereignty across every aspect of our lives.

A key problem has been the UK Government’s refusal to properly engage with the media – as well as the public – to explain what was going on and the reasoning behind the actions they were taking.

On the other hand, the EU has continually released information about what they expected from us, claiming their arguments to be far more reasonable. Of course, they weren’t, to anyone who paid attention, or looked into the detail.

However, instead of questioning the EU’s proposals for the one-sided anti-democratic ideas they were, the Government kept quiet. In this vacuum of information, the ideas and motivations behind the vote to leave the EU were crushed with a continuation of the ‘Project Fear’ narrative which we experienced so often throughout during the 2016 referendum campaign – and which still continues today.

Thankfully the tables have begun to turn. The Government seems to have finally started to take a different approach to talks, by announcing in Parliament and in detail, their proposals on how to fix the Northern Ireland Protocol. This decision to release a full ‘Command Paper’ on the UK’s intentions – as well as explaining how the EU’s own failings have given the UK the right to tear up the Protocol by triggering Article 16 – has put the EU on the back foot.

This new and robust UK attitude is one our Government must push ahead with – in parallel with ensuring the public are aware of the EU’s spiteful failures. This should enable the public to see the EU as the power-hungry, protectionist and vindictive organisation it is.

From: James Kenny, Leeds.

ARCH Remainer Ken Cooke is not as old as he sounds 
(The Yorkshire Post, August 3). 
He can’t remember that frictionless freedom of trade and movement was what these islands enjoyed before Edward Heath signed us up to the cosy club.

What changed is that we had to start paying for the privilege. As we stretch out and become trade partners with heavyweights India, Japan, Canada and Australia, in our rear view mirror lies the bickering petty feuding that fronts a corrupt and unelected cabal.

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