A heavy touch of hypocrisy

Sir, – It is a bit rich of H Moncrieff of Perth (Letters, October 8) to accuse the EU of using bullying tactics against a rebel member state that wants to leave because it no longer wishes to abide by the rules of a club it willingly joined in order to secure more advantageous trading deals elsewhere – or so it believes.

It seems he missed an item in a recent letters column which explained precisely how the UK bullied more than half the world to achieve the high level of prosperity enjoyed by some but certainly not all of the citizens of Britain during the Victorian era.

His answer to job shortages which would arise by banning immigrants would be to stop the dole, aka unemployment benefit, of anyone who refused to take a job offered to them, whether suitable or not.

It does not sound a lot like a solution he would readily accept for himself.

The one thing he got right was to point out that items bought from Europe could be available elsewhere in the world.

Of course this would mean negotiating trade deals with many of the nations which the UK had bullied in the past.

In this instance one wonders if the opportunity to exact revenge for past tariff impositions might just be too good to miss.

Finally, his plea to those who voted to remain in Europe to accept defeat in the name of sportsmanship is nothing short of risible.

Allan A MacDougall. 37 Forth Park, Bridge of Allan.