MP Chuka in need of a history lesson

DEAR Editor, Commenting on Politics Live on proposals for free movement between the United Kingdom and Australia, Lib Dem MP Chuka Umunna said that he didn’t understand why this proposal should be favoured when free movement between the UK and the EU was ending.

If Mr Umunna doesn’t comprehend differences between this country’s relationship with Australia and its relationship with the EU, it is clear that he is in need of a history lesson, and perhaps a visit to a Commonwealth War Graves cemetery might enlighten him.

There he will see gravestones and memorials to vast numbers of Australian servicemen who in two world wars gave their lives to help bring about the peace that EU citizens now enjoy.

Mr Umunna might also remember that a majority of Australians trace their origins to these islands, and I suggest that a wilful disruption of family ties is as shameful on a national level as it is on an individual level.

Such a disruption was undertaken by the Heath government which dutifully imposed trade tariffs against Australia when it took us into the then EEC in 1973, making no concessions for the loss of its historical trade links with the UK.

The present proposals, if implemented, might go some way to repairing this shameful action. Regarding practicalities, in the unlikely event of the entire Australian population moving here, some 26 million is a more manageable figure than the 500 million EU citizens who have hitherto held such a right, and the proposed arrangements could incorporate sensible checks on job prospects, self-maintenance and police records.

Official encouragement for the admission of more Commonwealth students might also be considered. In particular, a freer inflow of students from India could lead to a great boost to trade with a vast and still rapidly-expanding market which has been so puzzlingly neglected by British companies.

Barrie Francis, Selly Oak, Birmingham