The EU’S agricultural policy has driven environmental destruction
SIR – The RSPB and others (Letters, December 31) claim that a “green Brexit” depends on continued cooperation with the EU. The opposite could be argued, probably with greater evidence.
Most biodiversity loss in Europe is from the way we farm. Most EU spending is on the Common Agricultural Policy, which has contributed to unsustainable farming. The Common Agricultural Policy is “among the most powerful drivers of environmental destruction in the northern hemisphere”, as George Monbiot put it in October.
The RSPB and its fellow pressure groups think it easier to continue with the status quo, which has failed to deliver their objectives in the past.
As the Agriculture Bill put forward by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs shows, Brexit offers the opportunity to improve our green landscape management.
I am saddened, as an organic farmer and conservationist, that the Soil Association, to which I have been accredited for 25 years, is a signatory of the RSPB letter, which peddles pseudo-science and misuses the political influence of the signatory organisations, and the trust the public has in them. Nathaniel Page
Salisbury, Wiltshire
SIR – The “new chapter” that Theresa May says Britain is beginning will not come from her Brexit deal. The US ambassador (report, December 31) confirmed that a bilateral trade deal with Britain would not be possible under Mrs May’s Brexit plan.
John Robinson
Southwell, Nottinghamshire
SIR – Half Britain’s international trade in goods is done on World Trade Organisation terms with non-eu countries, and that will rise to 100 per cent if there is no deal with the EU.
Most MPS oppose no deal, but Labour MPS in particular should be proud of their party’s role in creating the WTO. Back in 1947 a global trade deal was negotiated by 23 countries, including Britain, when Clement Attlee was prime minister and Harold Wilson was president of the Board of Trade. It was called the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (Gatt) and was intended to reduce high tariffs to boost international trade and prosperity.
Gatt negotiated several rounds of tariff reductions, starting 10 years before the Common Market was set up under the Treaty of Rome. Many other countries joined Gatt over the years.
In 1973 Britain’s voting rights on Gatt were taken over by the Common Market. In 1994 Gatt was renamed the WTO.
So when Britain leaves the EU, it will be picking up where it left off and carrying on the good work started by Attlee and Wilson. There is no such thing as “no deal”, just the deal negotiated by the Labour government more than 70 years ago and it is one that has stood the test of time.
Christopher Sharratt
South Wonston, Hampshire