LIKE many, I saw membership of the EU as symbolic of a better future rather than being a vassal state kowtowing to an increasingly bizarre United States.
Frictionless tariff and free trade both within the EU and outside such as with Japan meant Britain was part of a powerful economic and political bloc on an equal footing with the Americans, alas this is now coming to an end and we will soon find ourselves adrift and powerless in a stormy world.
Carl Bernstein (Warrington Guardian, January 9) tries hard to convince us that we are setting off on a gentle stroll to the sunlit uplands of WTO land, but he fails to mention the £200 billion that Bloomberg tells us Brexit has cost us so far, or to explain how reverting to a model of tariffs and restrictions will be better than having free and frictionless trade with 31 other nations.
At the end of the transition period in 2021 we will have exactly zero such deals, we will even have barriers to trade with ourselves in Northern Ireland.
This year we will be going cap in hand to Donald ‘America First’ Trump.
Only the most fanatical Brexiters think this will turn out well, food standards will have to fall to accommodate abysmal American farming practices and we will have to pay vastly more for drugs from American big pharmaceuticals.
Tiny Britain against massive America, who will come out on top?
Trump and the EU know we are desperate for deals, so prepare for a massive fudge, a Brexit in name only. Remember history shows Johnson only wants power, he doesn’t give a toss about you and your Brexit.
ALLAN RALSTON Callands
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