Graham Jones

Haslingden MP

THERE should be lots to write to write about but only one issue continues to dominate. It’s serious stuff and we as voters have to decide on which consequence is best for the UK.

Brexit. Soft Brexit or hard Brexit? Everyone is wondering what this is all about but it is serious stuff.

There is a huge difference between the two - though it has never been explained properly until now. The difference is whether we want extra taxes on UK goods going to the EU. 10 per cent on British cars for example, 12 per cent on textiles.

We sell £200 billion plus worth of goods a year to the EU. That’s equal to around £200 million worth of exports to the EU from Rossendale alone (which will rise when the single market is expanded to service industries).

Hard Brexit means EU taxes on UK exports (known as tariffs) and with extra red tape with complex customs checks.

Tariffs and new non-tariff barriers may mean we sell a lot less goods at the new higher prices and as a consequence attract fewer new factories here in the UK. If by chance we did sell as much as we do now, the tariffs (around £10 billion currently) will go under a 1975 EU Act, straight into Brussels coffers.

Soft Brexit means no EU taxes on UK goods. It means customs free access to the single market but also comes with EU conditions.

A financial contribution (probably heading towards the £10 billion but less) and accepting some free movement of labour. Mmmmm…

I suspect the natural way out of this will be a devaluation of the £ by 10 per cent to 20 per cent which lowers export prices but makes imports and foreign holidays a lot dearer. We are all paying the price.

Also on the political spectrum has been the issue of grammar schools. This one is straight forward.

Having winners and losers is great for the winners.

However 11 is not the right age to be selecting who is likely to succeed and which young child has to go to a lesser school.

All the top academic achieving countries such as Canada, South Korea and Finland have a comprehensive education system.

Year end testing so favoured by the Tories and Michael Gove is destructive too. Great Britain PLC needs every child to succeed and to be know that there are lots of encouraging opportunities during the year to prove themselves with course work and redo if necessary. Not to have kids dropping off or out after failing year end exams.

Worth mentioning to constituents is the current state of Lancashire County Council.

It is fair to say that so deep are the Tory government’s cuts they have left LCC with not enough funding to cover their legal statutory duties/ services and they are beginning to fail financially.

Their legal statutory duties will cost more than their budget provides.

As a result non statutory services are being axed.

This Tory government can’t see that LCC are taking the right legal approach (or face court action from residents that they will lose) and as result libraries and other services are having to close.

It’s time for the cuts to local government to end, they’ve gone much too far.