Will UK gain most by staying in or leaving EU?

THERE IS a widespread belief that our trade with the EU benefits Britain. However, Office for National Statistics data shows that between 1995 and 2014 our deficit in goods and services rose from £11 billion a year to an astonishing £62 bn, a more than a five-fold increase. Taking goods alone (omitting services) the deficit is even greater at £77bn. At the same time our exports to non-EU countries rose faster, at 6.5 per cent compared with 3.5 per cent, and we’ve been running a trade surplus with them, mainly due to the export of services. Services in the EU haven’t been liberalised. Since the economic justification for joining the EU, and our agreement to massive farm subsidies, was to increase our trade with Europe, this disastrous failure seems to have gone unnoticed. It also undermines the argument that the EU would discriminate against us if we leave. Why should they wish to undermine their exports when they’re enjoying this massive surplus?

GORDON BRIDGER, Guildford, Surrey.

MUCH of the discontent expressing itself as opposition to the EU is born out of a dull hankering after the past, a willingness to blame our ills on membership. This is given vent in various ways. There are those who feel bereft by what they consider our abandonment of the ‘white’ Commonwealth to team up with Europe. Others long for a return of heavy industry. Some even seem to think that by leaving the EU we’ll somehow get the Empire back. It’s no surprise many Leave voters are the old, who want a return to a ‘golden era’. Many of them are pining for pounds, shillings and pence, inches and feet, Austin cars and all kinds of things whose loss they associate with our membership of the EU. Most Remain voters, by contrast, are younger and have a healthy grip on the need for concerted action in the face of today’s challenges. They have a hopeful outlook for the years ahead, aren’t scared by the idea that a ‘German conspiracy’ is somehow getting one over on us and retain a clear picture of Britain’s place in the world today, rather than in some vague neverland of the dim distant past.

M. WILLIAMSON, Manchester.