Brexit Thoughts
Sir: Congratulations on reclaiming your country from the EU monolith! I hope the other EU countries will soon follow suit, and judging by the amount of Euroscepticism now apparent in Europe, that possibility may not be far away.
Brexit opens up many opportunities for the Union (although I think the knee-jerk reaction by Scotland is very ill-advised), both within the EU (as Germany has indicated that they are still open to trade), and without the EU (for example, the redrafting of various trade agreements between Britain and the Commonwealth is on the cards, plus a strengthening of the special relationship between the US and Britain).
This decision will help farmers, fishermen and people in rural areas. I also pray that it might precipitate a domino-effect and
bring the whole edifice of the EU crashing down about Europe’s ears. It was a 1950s solution to a 1940s problem unnecessary in 21st-century politics and business.
Brexit has brought about a new paradigm, and the challenge now for British academia is how to work within that paradigm. It has brought scientists and the intelligentsia out of their comfort zones, and now it is time for Britain to rise again to the challenge presented to them by a new set of circumstances. —
MATTHEW HICHOLSON, AVONDALE, NSW, AUSTRALIA.
Sir: Colin Bullen’s emotive letter (“Postbox”, Winter 2016) branded remainers “spoilt children”, but wouldn’t Brexiteers have continued campaigning had they lost? Like 48 per cent of others I voted to remain, but fully respect the result without suggesting everything is perfect in Europe.
At 86 years, a pensioner and not part of his “metropolitan elite”, I am just as patriotic as anyone but extricating ourselves from Europe is more complex than imagined.
One reason I voted to remain was that the majority of young people desire it, seeing themselves as European as well as UK citizens. Unlike me they have 60 or more years in this world. Brexit almost certainly means that higher inflation will rear its unwelcome head this year. Young families and the poor will suffer most, not Boris or Nigel.
The UK economy was my single most important consideration, not “go home you foreigners”. Europe was a huge and certain trading market pre-brexit. I hope overseas workers return this year to pick our strawberries etc. on display annually in supermarkets, and allay the fears of anxious growers following Brexit — UK workers won’t. Also I hope we shall see the end of mindless violence against, of all people, the Polish who did so much to defend our country in the war when Poland was brutally overrun by the Nazi war machine. — A.J.
CROWHURST, SUTTON COLDFIELD, WARKWICKSHIRE.