YP Letters: Single market no barrier to global trade

WITH all due respect to Don Wood (The Yorkshire Post, June 21), his understanding of our membership of the single market is wrong.

It is not ‘either... or’, in the sense of the UK being either a member of the single market, or free to take advantage of ‘greater trading opportunities’ outside the EU.

It is ‘both... and’. Presently, Britain can trade freely with both the single market and the outside world.

Contrary to Mr Wood’s suggestion that I fear the outside world, my companies take full advantage of the trading agreements the EU has across the globe. We sell our products worldwide, from the Middle and Far East to Australia and North America. Leave the single market, and it’s ‘neither... nor’. We have neither free access to the huge European market on our doorstep, nor do we benefit from the EU’s trading agreements with non-member countries. In short, we have to start again from scratch.

From: JA King, Sheffield.

THERE are very few political commentators with any positive thoughts on Brexit, and the rest seem intent on winding everybody up because they lack positivity and foresight.

Can I inform them that these islands of Great Britain are not going to be towed out into the Atlantic Ocean? We will be physically attached by the English Channel and we still wish to be great friends with Europe and to still trade on equal terms.

What we do not want is to be governed by the EU and be told what we can and cannot do, we elected politicians to represent us and run this country of ours.

If we don’t like what they are doing, by a majority we can throw them out. We cannot kick out the unelected presidents or remove the commissioners.

All the time we have been contributing to the EU, we have never seen a set of accounts as they are secret.

Why don’t all the pundits who can do absolutely nothing about the Brexit negotiations just belt up and let those who can change things get on with the job? Think of the country and give them your full support.

From: Hugh Rogers, Messingham Road, Ashby.

RESEARCH among SME owners (The Yorkshire Post, June 23) carried out for the Association of Accounting Technicians has revealed that 47 per cent of respondents voted to leave the EU and – er – 47 per cent voted to stay.

The fact of our leaving is, of course beyond further debate, but even if this were not the case, considering the result of the survey any “second referendum” on our continued membership of the EU, as suggested by the likes of the Lib Dems, would be just as pointless as this survey seems to have been.

From: DS Boyes, Upper Rodley Lane, Leeds.

I HAVE to agree with Chancellor Philip Hammond’s concerns over Theresa May’s comment that “no Brexit deal is better than a bad one” as neither business nor industry in the UK, or Europe, could function effectively without clearly defined rules on tariffs or customs control.

People in international road haulage have, since around 1992, enjoyed the luxury of no customs clearance being needed at each and every border in Europe, with the exception of Norway and Switzerland or Eastern Europe at one time.

Exporting to any of these non-EU areas needing ‘T’ form documentation involves queuing for hours either at Dover or the EU exit point. and also increases costs. Is this yet another example of out-of-touch politicians with no real-life experience of business life?

From: P Rhodes, Leeds.

IT was sad to see the Lib Dem MP Greg Mulholland lose his seat in the election. With the party leader Tim Farron standing down, and Nick Clegg defeated, I would have liked to have seen him take over as the next leader of the Liberal Democrats.

He was a first class constituency MP for Leeds North West and he would have been a first class leader. Let’s hope we have not heard the last of Greg Mulholland.

From: David Quarrie, Lynden Way, Holgate, York.

RE the election, Mrs May made a marginally more misjudged move than Mrs Merkel’s massive migration mistake.

From: Andrew Mercer, Guiseley.

IF the Tories choose now to have a leadership contest, they will not be forgiven by the electorate. Given that the whole Cabinet endorsed Theresa May’s decision to hold a snap election, albeit an unwise one, they need to show some loyalty and get on with the job of governing.

They could help themselves by getting the Northern Powerhouse back on track.

Society made in Bradford

From: Gerald Hodgson, Spennithorne, Leyburn.

SINCE when has the Yorkshire Building Society been “based in Leeds” (The Yorkshire Post, June 21)?

I am aware that the previous CEO moved various functions to Leeds, presumably because he thought it was a smarter address, but the Yorkshire Building Society was an amalgamation of the Bradford Permanent and Huddersfield Building Societies and established in the offices in Bradford in 1982.

Bradford is a city with an amazing commercial and industrial past.

It has fallen on relatively hard times in recent decades and the last thing it needs is to be abandoned by one of the jewels in its crown, the Yorkshire Building Society.

It is worth emphasising that the Yorkshire wisely resisted the greed which saw so many building societies demutualise and, without exception, subsequently hit the buffers 
as a result.