Post Brexit we will be a Third World nation

AS a regular reader, and sometimes contributor, of the letters page I find the optimism for the future shown by some correspondents absolutely astonishing.

Through their rose-coloured spectacles they see a wonderful future where the rest of the world are fighting each other to trade with us, providing untold wealth, the likes of which we could never have whilst shackled to the EU.

I am afraid the reality is different. We are a nation that ceased virtually all homegrown mass production in the late 70s, early 80s.

We now produce almost nothing in any great quantity that is entirely homegrown British.

Any large scale production in this country is through foreign-owned companies, or through investment by far east countries who want their pound of flesh (China doesn’t invest in another country without expecting major returns from that investment).

I accept that Britain is full of craftsmen and artisans, however most of these highly skilled people operate piecemeal from small trading estates across the country, and however good they are they count for nothing when it comes to calculating the nation’s balance of payments.

Speaking of balance of payments, even in the EU we couldn’t turn a profit. At the last calculation we exported £300m to the EU, but imported £370m. If you scaled that down to a household budget and your weekly income was £300, but your expenditure was £370, how long could you keep that up?

I can see a clear road ahead, all the way to us becoming a Third World country. America will only trade with us if all the benefits go to them. Why would Australia and New Zealand beat a path to our door when we just abandoned them when we joined the so-called Common Market? Most of the Far East countries invest in Britain as a gateway to Europe, and will probably find it easier to pull out of Britain and rebuild and reinvest in Europe directly. We would be a banana republic without the ability to grow bananas.

I would like to be proved wrong. I have written on this subject previously, and I challenged fellow correspondents to show me how I was wrong but nobody took up the challenge

So I ask again, how is this country going to survive post Brexit? What have we got to offer the rest of the world that they can’t get more cheaply and in greater quantities from the Far East? As I say, please show me I am wrong, but I don’t think I am.

Alan Howlett, Banwell, Somerset