Boris has negotiated an excellent EU deal
C N Westerman in his latest antiBrexit, anti-Conservative diatribe is completely missing the point.
A majority of the UK voting population voted for Brexit to take back control of our country from the EU and return it to a sovereign independent state.
Membership of the EU was originally sold to us as a common market trading bloc, of which I was in favour, however it has gradually become much, much more than that with each passing year, with more and more control being handed to Brussels and, as a result, many people, myself included, have had enough and voted to no longer be part of what was becoming a political union.
That does not mean that we don’t want to work closely with our European friends, or participate with them where it is in our mutual benefit, but in leaving we now control our own borders, can strike our own trade deals, determine who comes into our country and who can fish in our waters and I think that is a price worth paying, even if we suffer economically in the short term.
Whilst I don’t agree with everything the Conservative Government or Boris Johnson has done, I think he has negotiated an excellent deal in the circumstances.
C N Westerman also writes regularly, despising both the Conservative party and capitalism, which he seems to think are both evil. Was it not the last Labour government that left the treasury coffers empty, one of their ministers,
Liam Byrne, even left a note saying there was no money left – which led to years of austerity – whilst the Conservatives tried to rebuild the public finances. And how does he think governments get their money, if it’s not from taxes from companies and individuals?
Having started a business in
2003 and built it up from scratch, I don’t see why that should not be rewarded, more than just being an employee. If you want individuals to take risks and start businesses then the tax system should incentivise them to do that. Having a system like communism where everyone gets the same, or the government runs everything, just doesn’t work, as amply demonstrated by those countries that have tried it. Even China is a now a capitalist country, albeit with a one-party dictatorship government.
Where I would have some agreement with him though, is with the greed of some individuals like Philip Green and others, who have shamelessly taken massive dividends, paid tax free to an offshore spouse and others who have continued to pay themselves large sums when their company has been failing, or has had large holes in its pension funds, and global companies that have ducked out of paying their fair taxes here – that’s something that needs better regulation, which neither the last Labour government nor the present Conservative one have tackled successfully.
Paul Wilton St Dominick, Cornwall