Politicians need to protect City and promote manufacturing

IT never ceases to amaze me that people like Denis MacShane (Yorkshire Post, December 12) can criticise the actions of the Prime Minister over the EU meeting after the event, while failing to say what his strategy would have been.

Perhaps if he, the Kinnocks and Lord Mandelson had looked to protect the UK’s interests in the EU when they were at the heart of the situation, we could all have been spared this crisis.

Maybe he would like to do a follow-up on the reasons Gordon Brown and his team replaced the Bank of England’s scrutineers with lightweight FSA clerks when the banks were making vast profits in increasingly complex global operations and rewarding their top people with huge bonuses.

Perhaps the fact that the Government were receiving very significant tax income from, not only these profits, but on the bonuses paid and the healthy dividends to shareholders prompted him to abdicate responsibility for this vital task.

That said, politicians need to protect our financial services against the envious aspirations of the rest of Europe, Germany and France in particular.

They must also, given that all parties have neglected our manufacturing base for decades, put aside petty squabbles and dedicate themselves to defending what is left from unfair overseas competition and make the most of the skilled workforce, and entrepreneurs which made our country a world leader.

From: D Wood, Thorntree Lane, Goole.

WITH reference to your article “Cameron insists on British interests” (Yorkshire Post, December 7), this is the same David Cameron who has feebly capitulated on every occasion when faced with Merkel, Sarkozy and even Clegg over the EU.

Merkel and Sarkozy have set their sights on a European bank transaction tax, which will in effect destroy the City of London as one of the world’s leading banking centres. These two have already decided upon this course of action. These two, plus Barroso and others have already stated that they are not interested in what David Cameron has to say, and that nothing must stop the rescue of the euro. So it will just be a case of Mr Cameron surrendering yet again.

Changing the rules will not pay back the trillions of euros owed by the eurozone countries and the financial institutions know this, thus the cost of borrowing for many of them has increased.

The only way David Cameron can now protect British interests is to give us a referendum on leaving the EU as the euro cannot be fixed.

From: Arthur Boynton, St Wilfrids Court, Brayton, Selby.

I AM saddened by the doom and gloom merchants that seem prevalent at the moment.

Have we all forgotten that England always stands better when we are “on our own”?

In 1939, we were all alone and by people pulling together we achieved victory over greater odds than now.

Even our “greatest” ally did not join in until 1942.