Brexit deal delays
Are the protracted delays in securing the UK voters’ clearly expressed referendum preference for restoration of our national sovereignty really necessary or, indeed, helpful in our gaining a satisfactory outcome?
“Leavers” seek the needs for the UK’S sovereignty to regain control of our borders, money and laws and to retain our own military forces and foreign policies.
Is it inevitable or essential that we pay a vast sum of money as a “ransom” so as to meet the European Union negotiators’ demands for money based on numbers evidently plucked out of the air? Money that could otherwise be used here for national needs such as our defence, health and education? Our real, fair debts to the EU can fairly be based only on previously-committed expenditures.
“Remoaners” predict extreme financial and political dangers inherent in our leaving without a deal, despite the Prime Minister’s statement that “no deal is better than a bad deal”. Specific dangers are usually not convincingly stated.
We in the UK have a strongly negative trade balance with EU countries which should give us a strong hand in bargaining with their negotiators, but has evidently not yet been exploited.
The UK’S EU remainers must be motivated by diverse reasons, but their overall respect for our nation and its democracy is now quite questionable. Michelle Thomson (Letters, 16 December) tells us it’s good to be optimistic – even though 90 per cent of business leaders are against Brexit. She claims their views are nuanced – many Remainers will welcome new trade deals.
Susan Rice, chair of the Scottish Fiscal Commission, sends a less nuanced judgment on the effect of Brexit. Scotland’s economy is being stifled by uncertainty over Brexit and lack of workers, according to the SFC. Its dire forecast is for five years of zero growth caused by the flight of European Union workers.
While less than a quarter of small businesses claim that rising income tax will affect their growth, the general picture with regard to Brexit is not nuanced. That is why 90 per cent don’t want it. Optimists killed the turkeys who voted for Xmas!
ANDREW VASS Corbiehill Place, Edinburgh (DR) CHARLES WARDROP Viewlands Road West, Perth