I read with interest, your front page article in the June issue of ‘Mature Times‘. I may be wrong, but it seemed to me that Andrew Young is a ‘pro EU’ man. Whilst he did offer a snippet or two in favour of continued EU membership, he certainly gave many un-proved reasons in favour of membership.
He spoke of the 1m Brit ex-pats now living abroad as being a good example of free movement. These ex-pats have moved abroad openly, honestly and contribute to the country that they choose to live in. This cannot be said for many from the EU who come to the UK to live, either under the free movement of EU citizens, or illegally when we cannot deport them because of their ‘human rights’.
Andrew’s assumption that ‘private pensions’ would be more costly to run here if we leave the EU is unfounded and scare-mongering by saying that this would lead to many pensioners struggling to make ends meet, hence to stay in the EU is ‘crucial’ according to Andrew.
The fact is that if (when) we quit the EU we will be free to trade worldwide, including with the Commonwealth that we shamefully abandoned when we joined the original common market! Pro EU people often say that if we left the EU, our trade within the EU would cease. WRONG! The fact is that we have run a huge balance of trade deficit with the EU each year since joining the Common market in the 1970s.
If we quit the EU, they will want to continue to sell their goods to us, it’s called ‘business’ but we will be able to choose better, both how much we buy from them and how much we would ‘expect’ them to buy from us in return. Our membership of the EU costs the UK £56m PER DAY. That is around £1 per day for every man, woman and child in the UK, ie £365 per year (not the £130 mentioned by Andrew). That is around £1500 per year for a typical family of four!
I could go on, but your space is limited. Suffice it to say that we would be far better off out of the EU. We could control our borders to ensure that only those with ‘proper paperwork’ could come in, we could rescue our fishing industry and restrict over fishing by Spain and France in our waters, we could trade feely with the world and we would be much much richer by not supporting the bureaucratic EU.
Finally, I will mention that I am a pensioner, the father of four adult married kids (aged 40 to 48) and grandad of nine (aged from 4 to 22). I therefore understand the needs of a very wide age range. I must also state that I am a UKIP District Councillor (the only one on Shepway District Council), so you would expect me to say what I have said. I do, however, stand by my words and can only advise readers to look closely at the pros and cons of continued EU membership.
Yours,
Terry Mullard (UKIP)
Shepway District Counci
