Time for us to seek maximum benefit from closer relationships with our European neighbours - Yorkshire Post Letters

Correspondents responding adversely to John Cole’s suggestion (August 25) that voters were misled during the referendum are stubbornly refusing to face reality.

Wilfully detaching the UK from European markets and freedoms with no government forward-planning has resulted in untold misery for huge swathes of our population. Almost every part of the public sector and much of the private sector is suffering serious consequences of staffing, stifling red, white and blue tape and restricted movement of goods and personnel.

Without the restraining hand of EU legislation, our water companies have discharged record

amounts of raw sewage into our rivers and onto our beaches. At the same time, the top brass of these same companies have been awarded record bonuses.

As Chancellor, Rishi Sunak slashed the school building maintenance programme to allow for tax cuts to the already well off. A consequence of the government’s failure to address the well-documented 30 year time-bomb of RAAC (reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete) means that thousands of children last week returned to schools which are not fit for purpose and in many cases potentially deadly. Similar dangers are present in many of our hospitals and other public buildings.

Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng’s financial incompetence brought our economy to the brink of collapse. The catastrophic results of this are still being endured by tens of millions of borrowers whose repayments suddenly sky-rocketed.

It is difficult to see what advantages our nation has gained from distancing itself from European cooperation. The much vaunted ‘Brexit Bonuses’ sound increasingly hollow as we move on from the initial post-referendum hysteria and are forced to face today’s reality. In talking up the Windsor Agreement, Rishi Sunak admitted that Northern Ireland had the best of both worlds – open access to the EU and unhindered trade with the UK’s home market.

Before the UK’s ties with the EU were so incautiously severed, we all enjoyed this “best of both worlds”.

The UK is generally perceived to be in a catastrophic state of decline which cannot be reversed without closer relationships with our European allies and neighbours. It would seem that the government is gradually coming to terms with this reality. This is evidenced by our eminently sensible return to the £85bn Horizon scientific research programme – albeit on less favourable terms. Before the government severed our links with Europe, the UK was always a net beneficiary of Horizon with a world respected contribution to scientific research and development which attracted the best minds from across the globe.

Another positive step towards undoing some of the damage of the “go-it-alone” position is the acceptance that other countries have more respect for the CE kite mark than a UK home-grown standard. If we wish to develop our international trade, we need to meet recognised international standards.

Those who use abusive language and self-evidently stale arguments to defend the UK’s appalling act of self-harm are part of a minority. It is now time for our country to move forward and seek maximum benefit from closer relationships with our European neighbours.