Letter: The EU Deal is a Bad Deal

Published on: 28 Nov, 2018
Updated on: 28 Nov, 2018

From Stuart Barnes

In response to: Guildford’s MP Outlines Her Position on Brexit As Vote on Deal Looms

“No deal is better than a bad deal” – wasn’t that a slogan of our PM? This is indeed a bad deal – in fact so bad that it has allied the extreme left and the more sensible right in hating it.

It has been cooked up in secret by an unelected civil servant and caused those of the government who were genuinely trying to carry out the instructions of the people to resign in disgust. In some ways, this grovel to the EU (see Selmyar’s and Macron’s recent comments) is worse than the betrayal of the ghastly Heath when he connived and cheated to take us in.

I suggest that any MP who votes for this deal may have problems with his, or her, electorate in the next general election.

The best way out of this mess now is to leave cleanly on WTO [World Trade Organisation] terms and pay no fee for doing so – as per the House of Lord’s report confirming that we owe the EU nothing.

Responses to Letter: The EU Deal is a Bad Deal

Iain Lees Reply

November 28, 2018 at 2:48 pm

I completely agree with Stuart Barnes’ analysis. The bookies now give the Withdrawal Agreement only a 14% chance of getting through a House Of Commons vote.

Throughout the Brexit process, certain elements of our establishment, the CBI, Treasury and Civil Service, the Lords and Remainers in Parliament, have been hostile to the 2016 Referendum vote. They simply see no use for democracy, seeing it as an inconvenience. But democracy is not an inconvenience and economics should not be prioritised above our sovereignty.

Theresa May has micromanaged the negotiations with the EU in secret, behind the back of DExEU Ministers. The Withdrawal Agreement is the truly awful result, tying us in even tighter to EU restrictions, solely for the benefit of the 12% of British businesses who participate in supply chains with EU companies. It is Remain-, BRINO [Brexit in Name Only] – a complete betrayal of the Brexit vote.

The “insurmountable” NI border issue has been revealed by the WTO as being a complete lie. The predictions of economic collapse, unemployment and mass exodus of businesses, have been proven by time as lies and exaggerations. We’re not at the “back of the queue” for a US deal, CANZUK enjoys huge popularity, TPP is likely, then there’s the Commonwealth, China, Brazil, the rest of the world, and a chance to truly trade fairly with African nations. All of these present opportunities to improve our appalling £80bn trade deficit in goods with the EU. They represent untold exporting opportunities and a reduction in the cost of living for the poorest in our society.

As for EU trade, once we leave, we would become the EU’s largest trading partner – bigger than the US and Japan combined. The trade negotiation dynamics would change in our favour. They have already offered what we wanted, an FTA. Why Theresa May turned them down is beyond me.

Anyway, WTO exit is not only nothing to be scared of, it was what I, as a Brexiteer, expected and wanted. I can only hope that the prime minister’s deal is rejected by the House of Commons and that if there is a second referendum, that the British people resist “Project Fear” once again and continue to look to the horizon.
Gladys Pilkington Reply

November 29, 2018 at 11:03 am

Sounds simple and sensible, let’s do this.
gordon bridger Reply

November 29, 2018 at 11:07 am

What I find quite incredible about this whole negotiating business is that those who want to secure concessions from the EU insist in throw away the only bargaining position by saying the a “no deal is unacceptable (the WTO solution) will be so damaging that it is not acceptable.

So why should the EU make any concessions at all? As a result they have us over a barrel. And even if there were another vote which reversed the decision it would put them in an even stronger position to negotiate the terms of our re-joining. What humiliation.

Oh yes, and by that time the economic and social problems the EU is facing would have worsened.