23rd December 2018
Dear Mrs May
The people respected the decision of the majority to remain in the European Community in 1975. I am not a politician, journalist or a businessman but am well aware of the dangers of propaganda, confirmation bias and misuse of statistics, have weighed up both sides of the argument carefully and decided that the UK will be much better off outside the European Union. Whilst immigration is undoubtedly important and of serious concern and may have swung undecided voters in the Referendum it is not the only, nor even the main reason, why most people voted to leave the EU.
Voters were subjected to Project Fear, using both facts, exaggerations and outright lies from national and international institutions, local and foreign world leaders and politicians on an unprecedented scale to stop us voting to leave the EU. It is insulting and arrogant to think that those who voted leave did so because they believed some figure on a bus, or because they were ill informed or stupid. It is impossible to put into words what it felt like on the dawn of 24th June 2016 when I learnt that, despite all the State and Internationally funded opposition, we, the people of the United Kingdom, had voted to leave the EU; the feeling of absolute joy and sense of freedom was overwhelming. We have been closely integrated with the EU for over four decades so it is no surprise that we will have temporary difficulties as we untangle ourselves from the EU. Instead of a government and a parliament that embraces the decision of the people to leave the EU and ensures that this is done as swiftly as possible, what we have been getting is more propaganda against leaving the EU and words like ‘Cliff Edge’, ‘Disaster’ and ‘Crash’ instead of words like freedom, reduced costs, cheaper food prices, larger markets etc.
You have worked hard and finally come up with the best Deal the EU is willing to agree to, but sadly, although not unexpectedly, this falls far short of what the people voted for. You claim repeatedly that the deal will mean we will be able to control our own borders, make our own laws, keep all of our fishing rights and make our own trade deals but conveniently omit to mention when these dreams will come true and the heavy price we have to pay. Those who voted to leave the EU have already waited for almost three years (many have waited for over 40 years) for this to happen but what the Withdrawal Agreement offers us is yet more delay and uncertainty, being tied into the EU for another few years in the transition period with still no certainty of any useful trade deal. The Agreement is a bad Agreement even without the Irish Backstop and the £39 billion we have to pay; the Backstop simply gives the EU another tool with which to blackmail the UK and influence our trade deals; it is hard to understand how any politician who has pride in the country can even contemplate agreeing to it. I can understand multinational businesses and UK businesses which deal predominantly with the EU (which is only a small proportion of UK Businesses) wanting to stay close to the EU using the Withdrawal Agreement but this will be at the expense of the majority of UK Businesses and the democratic will of the people. We are told that leaving the EU will present an uncertain future but the possibly greater uncertainty of remaining in the EU with its declining economy and ever growing political integration and stifling laws are not mentioned. With such a large trade deficit with the EU where we buy more from the EU then they buy from us there is no reason why we cannot agree on trade arrangements that will mitigate most of the problems that leaving the EU will create. We will be free as a nation to pursue our own trade deals with the whole world, including the EU, and prosper. It is not difficult to see why the EU would not want us to do this; they are scared we will become competitors and outperform the EU. The EU may want to punish us but we could temporarily lower tariffs to the outside world to negate the effects whilst we negotiate our trade deals. The EU will soon come round to fair negotiation when its member nations face the prospect of losing a significant proportion of their trade permanently if they do not act quickly to make it easier for us to trade with them.
I am very worried that if the Withdrawal Agreement is pushed through parliament and accepted, democracy will be the main casualty. The Conservative and Labour parties will not recover from the accusation of betrayal by the electorate and they will continue to be split by EU issues; it is very likely that a new Brexit party that will hold the balance of power in a future coalition government will emerge and the debate will continue. If Parliament votes instead for the unthinkable Second Vote for a rerun of the Referendum, all MPs who supported this will be shown up for their undemocratic and dishonest values; their careers will be forever tarnished by this and they could become unelectable.
There are so many important issues other than Brexit like Health, Education, Policing, the Armed Forces, the threat posed by Islamic Radicalisation to both Muslims and non-Muslims, but these are not being addressed because most of Parliament’s time and attention is being consumed by Brexit. Accepting the Withdrawal Agreement will not bring an end to the problem. All it does is put us in a transition period when the debate about accepting or rejecting the EU institutions and the price we have to pay for this will continue. The only difference is that the EU, having received its £39 billion and with its threat of a Backstop, will continue to blackmail us and use this to influence our trade deals. Surely the only sensible thing to do is to deliver what the people voted for by pressing ahead with leaving on World Trade Organisation Terms, which we are entitled to do, and preparing businesses for this, if necessary using some of the £39 billion we would have saved by not accepting the Withdrawal Agreement. We badly need a government that believes in Brexit, that is able to counter all the negative pressure and propaganda, and exploits all the benefits that leaving the EU brings.
I am pleased you are now preparing the country for leaving on WTO Terms. My fear is that the EU may have a last minute change of mind and agree to remove the backstop allowing the government to claim a victory and get the withdrawal agreement passed in Parliament. This will not be good enough for this country and will still delay us leaving the EU and prevent us from utilising the full benefits of leaving the EU. Surely the right course is to now press ahead with WTO Brexit, look to a future of trading freely with the rest of the world (85 % of the world economy) and taking a lead in democracy and free trade which we have not been able to do whilst we have been shackled to the EU. If you are able to do this, I have no doubt you will become known as the Prime Minister who delivered Brexit and saved a proud democratic nation with a fantastic history that is the envy of every other country in the world. Immigration, which will always be needed, will remain a point for debate but at least once we are free of EU rules we can decide what level of immigration we want for the good of the country. Immigration supresses wages for the low paid and provides cheap tax payer subsidised labour for Industry which does not pay the true cost of the welfare provisions that will be needed now and in the future for these workers. High skilled immigration drains developing countries of skills and their investment in their people and results in less effort being put into training and retaining our own people – effectively changing skilled people in our country who will leave for better pastures with an influx of cheaper skilled workers from overseas. The argument that the aging population needs more young people to come into the country does not work in the long term and surely we need to become more imaginative into how we can solve the conundrum – there will be solutions with technology, robotics etc. if only we are prepared to look and to invest.
I accept that leaving the EU will still leave many who voted Remain unhappy. If democracy is respected by delivering the Referendum result and if we find in a few years’ time that EU membership is preferable, unlikely as it seems, there is no reason why we cannot have another Referendum then. Those who argue that we may have lost some of the special advantages afforded to the UK at present need to know that if the EU is such a good club it would still be worth joining; foregoing the special privileges we have now, which we may have lost in due course anyway, is a small price to pay for preserving Democracy and the peoples’ faith in our Parliament. Pursue your plan to force Parliament to accept the Withdrawal Agreement if you must, but please do not do this claiming you are delivering what the people voted for, because you are not.
Santi Vathenen
Stratford-Upon-Avon
Brexit 