The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Britain can prosper outside European Union
Letters to the editor
Sir,- Dr John Cameron’s rather bitter antiBrexit and UK letter (June 24) depicts a “xenophobic little Britain... unwelcoming, impoverished, isolated offshore archipelago in the wastes of the North Atlantic” while the rest of the EU becomes stronger, without the UK as an obstacle to European unification.
In recent years, the rejection of various referenda from the EU Commission by Denmark, Eire, France, Greece, Greenland, Italy and the Netherlands, with several followed by reruns imposed to quash these “wrong” answers, hardly bespeaks universal popular political happiness in the EU.
Norway, like us, sited in the North Atlantic “wastes,” and Switzerland, are prosperous nations that, having opted against EU membership, still flourish on very friendly terms, trading merrily with fellow European countries and worldwide, wherever they may choose.
Our own economic position, with trade balances favouring the UK in these complex Brexit negotiations, is strong, while Angela Merkel in Germany is weaker politically and will be influenced by industries exporting to us, wanting to maintain their trade.
It is very possible that the EU Commission’s negotiating position depends on a fair amount of bluff.
Some of them will guess that its break-up or at least drastic restructuring may not be far off.
The UK’s convincing, democratic rejection of EU membership should not be overruled just because a minority wish to remain.
One trusts that the UK, liberated from a costly, bossy, often anti-democratically-run EU, will have a better chance to flourish more again, on a democratic, patriotic basis, while remaining on excellent friendly, mutually beneficial economic terms with our European neighbours.
(Dr) Charles Wardrop. 111 Viewlands Road West, Perth.