YP Letters: USA acts in its own interests, not in ours

THE American statesman, Henry Kissinger, said “America has no permanent friends or enemies, only interests”. So the belief that USA President Barack Obama’s advice that the UK should stay in the EU can be accepted because he is our “friend” is naive at best.

It is in the USA’s interests to keep us shackled to the EU, not ours. And it is in David Cameron’s interest, as de facto leader of the Remain campaign, to grab any support he can find, however insincere.

Moreover the tone employed by President Obama seems suspiciously like the rather more hysterical outbursts from Mr Cameron: not just the President calling us his “friend” but making the peculiar threat that we would be at the back of the queue for a free trade agreement.

The USA, as a nation, is already our biggest trading partner (Germany is second). The fact is that when we leave the EU our trading relationship with the USA will not change one bit.

However, by staying in the EU, our trade with America will become subject to the EU-USA Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), when finalised. This is not a free trade agreement (though it is being sold as such) but a stitch-up for the benefit of big corporations that will allow them to sue democratic governments.

The EU is of course neither socialist, nor conservative, nor liberal, nor democratic: it is corporatist. That is why the USA wants us tied into the EU: it will suit the global corporates, of which the USA has many.

From: Hilary Andrews, Nursery Lane, Leeds.

I HAD high hopes of President Obama when he was elected, but he has failed to get anything he aimed for in the United States.

Guantanamo Bay is still operative, Medicare is still not available to poor Americans and the gun lobby refuses to do anything about the number of unnecessary deaths due to everyone having the “right to bear arms”. All of these he promised to deal with.

Does he want his legacy to be that he persuaded the British people to stay in a failing Europe? I think we have better sense than that.

From: Tim Mickleburgh, Boulevard Avenue, Grimsby.

I’M really loath to pay a compliment to Nigel Farage, but he’s got it spot on when saying the last time we did as the USA told us was over Iraq. So we should ignore President Obama when he wants the UK to remain in the EU.

From: Eileen Barker, Scrayingham.

IT didn’t take long for the “Remainians” to link the bad news that there are 21,000 more people out of work now than six months ago to “uncertainties over the referendum” and “the possible consequences of Brexit”. This is another example of “Project Fear”.

There I was naively thinking it had something to do with the closure of several steel works around the country and subsequent “collateral damage” to shops and other businesses close by due to lack of trade from those unlucky enough to have had their jobs taken from them by EU regulations.

From: Chris Gallacher, Chairman, Ukip Redcar.

WHAT of our “special relationship” with America? To be honest, it never existed apart from as a convenient bargaining tool when there was a requirement to get the UK to back US foreign policy – going to war generally – which is the sum total of the finesse exerted by the American administration.

American foreign policy is summed up by how much money can be made by doing something that will benefit the US economy.

From: Andrew Mercer, Guiseley.

WHY did one press conference over the EU require Barack Obama to spend three nights in Britain? Has he nothing better to do?

From: Hugh Rogers, Messingham Road, Ashby.

WHEN William Shakespeare wrote his famous speech in Richard II about “this earth, this realm, this England” he was not, as is generally supposed, being emptily patriotic. Rather, as the rest of the passage (sadly, some might say conveniently, airbrushed out) makes clear, he saw his country “bound in with shame with inky blots and rotten parchment bonds” Which sums up the European Union and the Treaty of Rome rather nicely.

Through his character John of Gaunt, our most illustrious playwright leaves us in no doubt that he didn’t like his country’s honour sold to the highest bidder. I hope that on June 23, 2016, the British Government will discover that the people of “this dear, dear land” don’t like it either.

From: Don Burslam, Elm Road, Dewsbury Moor, Dewsbury.

THANKS to the bias in parts of the media, the supposed perils of immigration have been absurdly over-exaggerated. It is interesting to note that there is a substantial movement to the UK from Spain, Italy and Portugal in addition to Poland, Romania and Bulgaria.

These are people who want to work and contribute and there is plenty of evidence that these migrants are taking jobs in catering and agriculture which our own people spurn. We have an ageing population and this fresh source of labour is giving an enormous boost to our economy.

The free movement of people within the EU has also enabled some two million from the UK to settle abroad. Unfortunately it is the negative side of the story which gets most coverage.