Price to pay on economy if EU exit door opens

IT comes as little surprise to us that more than 75 per cent of senior business managers and owners want to see the UK remain in the EU (Yorkshire Post, February 20). The benefits of UK membership far outweigh any of the supposed benefits those calling for withdrawal like to put forward.

At a time when we should all 
be working to improve the economy in Yorkshire, any idea of leaving the EU could do significant damage to those efforts.

Not only does EU membership make the UK and Yorkshire an attractive place for international investment, but access to the world’s biggest single market is key for the region’s exporters. The Department for Business calculates that one in ten UK jobs depend on EU trade and our membership adds about £3,300 per year to each family.

Indeed, business bosses are right to be concerned about the risks to free trade should the UK leave.

Being part of the EU is also a boost for employees in firms across the region because of the workplace protections afforded to them by the EU – protections such as the right to paid annual leave, which those calling for EU withdrawal would be happy to see disappear.

Of course, that is not to say 
that EU reform is not needed 
and that EU support for businesses in the Yorkshire and Humber region could not be improved. But it is only by being on the inside that we can champion reform.

We will continue to fight for a better deal for the region and welcome hearing more from businesses concerned about the possibility of Britain leaving the EU.

From: Jack Kinsman, Stainton Drive, Grimsby.

CAN someone please enlighten be about European law? It seems that the EU Commission can make up any law it feels like and the UK carries it out immediately (under threat of huge fines), while other EU states totally ignore it. How is this possible?

Take the case of pig farming, we carry out the diktat immediately, while 80 per cent of the EU states ignore it.

Not one cent is levied in fines on any country not complying. Why?

In Canada recently the 
 French police stopped a man putting the word “Pasta” in his shop window. The shop was a pasta shop. The owner had lived and worked in Montreal for 22 years without trouble but now the French police say that the word “Pasta” is Italian and must be changed to French. The mind boggles!

I did not know until yesterday that Canada had two sets of police, did you? Bit like the EU, innit?

Speaking up for accents

From: Arthur Quarmby, Underhill, Holme.

WHO does Grace Hammond think she is (Yorkshire Post, February 25), to define how English should be spoken?

Regional accents are one of the main delights of spoken English, and may well be more “correct” than BBC English (which has such difficulty with the double oo – which they pronounce “er”, meaning good becoming “gerd”).

And as for “a” always being made to rhyme with “ah” – this is a complete nonsense – how would Shakespeare have pronounced the “a” in “Cry havoc, and let slip the dogs of war?” Or astonish, or accident, or apple. With our use of the “a” we are far more consistent. I speak as one who had the long “a” and BBC-speak grafted onto him at school, but which I quickly abandoned – especially when working in London.

Long may our regional accents thrive – and our dialect also!

How to avoid a
power struggle

From: Gerry Vickers, Poole Lane, Burton Salmon, Leeds.

Blackfriar’s article on Drax power station and Britain’s energy strategy, or lack of it (Yorkshire Post, February 21), sums up the situation very 
clearly. It would be a good idea to put a copy through every 
letter box.

As the months and years go by it seems less likely that we will see any electricity generated by new nuclear power stations before 2020 or that large scale carbon capture and storage will be in operation. A shortage of power between now and 2020 seems to be more and more likely.

In my view the programme to scrap our big coal burning stations should be abandoned immediately and the anti-pollution organisations should be told “sorry lads but we are going to miss our agreed target for 2020 but we will do our best to reach it as soon as possible.”

To risk being unable to meet the demand for electricity, the life-blood of any industrial nation, for the sake of meeting some arbitrary pollution target by a certain date is ludicrous.

We are already taking a risk in placing such reliance on gas burning stations, relying on gas from abroad.

More expensive electricity will be another drag on our economic recovery. I am having difficulty being optimistic about our future.

In defence of local butchers

From: John B Mainprize, East Ella Drive, Kingston upon Hull.

I write in response to the letter by Martin Fletcher (Yorkshire Post, February 22). Please Mr Fletcher, don’t tar all butchers with the same brush.

I go into Cottingham, some three miles from my address, on a regular basis. There are two very good butchers there that sell top quality meat and very reasonably priced it is as well. I won’t deny that Morrisons may be the best of the big supermarkets for meat and poultry but I prefer to stick with my local butcher.

Also, not so very far away is Beverley which has at least three very good butchers close to the town centre. One of them even has the name of the farm from which his meat is obtained.