Dyson departure heaps tragedy on farce

Madam, – It is ironic that Derek Farmer’s latest rant against Scots, the EU and the single market (Letters, January 23) coincided with two articles in the same issue which served to undermine his argument.

Firstly was the decision by arch Brexiteer James Dyson of vacuum cleaner fame to move his head office from Wiltshire to Singapore where he has already announced he will manufacture the company’s new electric cars. Hardly a resounding endorsement of the prospects for postBrexit Britain.

Secondly, P&O, one of the few remaining British owned shipping lines, announced it is re-registering its British fleet in Cyprus to avoid the economic and operational problems that will be caused by Brexit. Previously Easy Jet announced it was re-registering 100 of its aircraft in Germany and the same number in Austria.

The Tories are making preparations for congestion in British Channel ports by giving a £13.8 million contract to provide extra ferries to Seaborne Freight who own no ships and who apparently intend operating out of Ramsgate, a port currently out of commission which will require major dredging work to make it operational. The late Brian Rix could not have dreamt up a Whitehall Farce to match this.

The latest warning has come today from Tom Enders, chief executive of French owned Airbus UK which directly provides 14,000 jobs in the UK with a further 110,000 in supply chain companies. He points out that in a global economy the UK no longer has the capacity to go it alone and that no company, however large, is too established in the UK to move. Mr Enders’ remarks are a stark reminder of the political and commercial vulnerability of a postBrexit Britain and the fact that Westminster seems hell-bent on antagonising as many of its trading partners as possible.

The fact that Scotland voted decisively against the fantasies of the Brexiteers and is now having its views ignored, strongly suggests our best future is as a sovereign state in Europe working with rather than against our neighbours. Ken Guild. Brown Street, Broughty Ferry.