Let us wait until Article 50 is triggered and see what happens next
RICHARD Mowbray (Letters Special, October 26) is obviously on a roll.
However, regardless of whether he is right or wrong, there are at least three criteria he should throw in the mix.
First, unlike Mr Mowbray, very few of us wake up in the morning asking what the GDP growth was yesterday. Nor do we wonder whether the UK has the EU over a financial barrel or vice versa.
Rather, we are more likely to ask why, for every Mervyn King, the former governor of the Bank of England, whose dream has come true as a result of a 20 per cent devaluation of the pound, we – as motorists, for example – feel that it is a nightmare come true.
Our nightmare is, after all, far more palpable than Lord King’s dream.
I also think British emigrants (fondly referred to as expats) may find the devaluation of the British pound may suddenly have acquired an existential dimension that dreams, or Mr Mowbray’s economic wisdom, cannot possibly match.
Secondly, Mr Mowbray should always bear in mind that politicians, more often than not, live in a permanent parallel universe and have been known to put party before country – witness David Cameron’s call for the EU referendum – or to put personal interests before anything else; witness Boris Johnson.
It is therefore just possible EU leaders may cut off their noses to spite their faces, if only to emulate the UK in its choice to leave the EU.
Thirdly, while I respect Mr Mowbray’s undoubted knowledge of economics, he should be reminded that economics is a social science. Therefore, it is not simply a matter of feeding economic data and facts through an economic Large Hadron Collider and, hey, presto, the God Economic Particle has been demonstrated, and unequivocally and universally embraced by the entire economic fraternity and by us mere mortals.
May I therefore suggest we wait until Article 50 is served and see what happens next ... which is exactly what we have all been doing so far? Patrice Fabien, 41 Kingsborough Gardens, Glasgow.