What price to gain our ‘sovereignty’?
I COULD not believe Mr Brooking’s assertion that ‘we’ wanted a no-deal Brexit all along (‘No deal icing on the cake’, December 21). Does he really not understand what he has written, or does he not care one hoot about his fellow citizens?
My understanding is that with no deal, after losing membership of the single market, we would be trading on WTO terms, which means an increase in prices; the EU would impose tariffs – an increase in prices. The UK may impose tariffs on EU goods – an increase in prices. There could be a refusal of admission of some food stuffs if they did not adhere to EU standards – shortages. There could be queues to and from transit points – has anyone seen the M20 lorry park recently?
There could be possible confrontations over fishing rights. Non-UK boats could not fish in UK waters. (Incidentally, £160m worth of England’s fishing quota is owned by companies based in Iceland, Spain and the Netherlands.)
There would be problems with security and sharing of data. After losing our freedom of movement in the EU, we have adopted a points system for incoming workers. The NHS is ridiculously overstretched, we need workers quickly – and many EU doctors and nurses were our
NHS workers. There will be queues through airports. There could be problems with the Northern Ireland border.
These points are the tip of the iceberg. No-one in the Leave camp ever used a no-deal Brexit as an incentive. Liam Fox promised coming to a free trade agreement with the EU should be “one of the easiest in human history” and please do not forget Johnson’s ‘oven-ready deal’. No-one has ever given me a sane reason why the UK is better out of the EU – especially with no viable trade deal. The EU is a huge economy and we are risking losing all advantage. It has also been made patently clear, during this dreadful pandemic, that EU member states can act unilaterally – in this case by closing borders to UK lorries to try halting the spread of the new strain of Covid-19.
It is so obvious that there has been much economy with the truth. Brexit gives us our ‘sovereignty’ but at what price? So no, Mr Brooking, ‘we’ do not want a no-deal Brexit... this ‘we’ wants to be a fully functioning global country with an excellent relationship with the EU – not some pariah state.
Catherine Pickles Underhill, Buckfastleigh