‘Brexit would not stop us having to bail out Europe’

MR NIXON (Post & Times, September 4) has a very poor understanding of the workings of international business and the entanglement of UK banks and enterprises with global partners.

It is right to state that the UK would be jointly liable with other EU member states should Italy default whilst we are an EU member.

This is a broad view and I am not entirely sure to what extent the ECB (European Central Bank), as a guardian of the Euro, would take the lead with the UK being a lesser “creditor” due to not being in the Euro zone.

However, to infer that by leaving the EU we would escape being caught in the downdraught of an Italian default is a total misunderstanding.

UK banks and businesses are so heavily exposed to any EU events by virtue of their deep trading engagements with companies in Europe that a major collapse within the EU would result in our banks and businesses, our entire country, being dragged into the mess too.

It does not matter whether we are in or out of the EU, we will be “bailing out Italy or any other defunct EU nation by proxy”.

Indeed, an extensive economic or corporate failure anywhere in the world would also severely affect us in the UK.

To believe otherwise demonstrates a lack of knowledge of global trade.

To make the UK immune to such risks would only be possible if we stopped completely and utterly to trade with anyone except ourselves, which is not very realistic and also hugely damaging.

Therefore Brexit does nothing to protect us from EU calamities.

Our leaders know this but claim otherwise. Franz Opitz Leek