Getting facts right about Brexit

DEARY, deary, me! Yet another Remainer (Mike Baldwin, Letters, November 19) misleading the public with incorrect or outdated numbers, percentages, mirrors and smoke!

The Chancellor did not mention Brexit because he is fully aware no doubt that (part) Brexit has actually benefitted the nation.

So let us look across the Channel for some comparisons on food inflation, stated by Mr Baldwin as 6% in the UK when it is actually 14.6% for October 2022. (Source: TradingEconomics.com). Germany has a food inflation rate of

18.70%, France 7.5%, Italy 13.5%, Spain 15.4%. These are the latest figures available and prove quite categorically that the UK is not doing too badly at all in comparison with its major neighbours in the EU. So, Brexit has nothing to do with the current inflation, worldwide, that is being experienced.

Overall inflation latest figures to October 31 are as follows: UK 10.1%, EU 10.9%. (Germany 10.4%, France 6.2%, Spain 7.3%, Italy 12.6%, Netherlands 14.8%). That appears to me to be conclusive evidence that, yet again, Brexit has absolutely nothing to do with underlying inflation.

Regarding Mr Baldwin’s statement that the Office for

Budget Responsibility has always maintained that Brexit will cause a long-term loss of 4% on the UK’s GDP is not backed up by statistics or fact. Would Mr Baldwin please be so good as to state his source of information? We are all agog!

Finally, we come to oft-repeated whinges that we were all lied to by a group of Conservatives obsessed with ideology. Really? I seem to recall receiving a little booklet from the Conservative government extolling the virtues of voting to remain and the dire consequences of voting to leave! Is Mr Baldwin quite sure that he is talking about the same party? In reality, both sides fabricated ‘facts’ and told outrageous porkies during a campaign that was pitifully run by both sides.

I voted to leave the EU. I do not regret that in the least. I do regret that Boris Johnson is of the opinion that Brexit is ‘done’. It is not!

David J E Williams

By email