Why we should be re-setting our relationship with the EU

Political opponents like to think that this is a desperate u-turn by a beleaguered government, but in fact the Labour government are doing this because they are now able to. 

Sir Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves were both horrified when they discovered that they couldn’t afford to avoid scrapping the winter fuel payment for many pensioners, and to now be able to do something about it following a recent upturn in the economy is good news for them. 

During the controversy over winter fuel payments, not one opposition party offered an alternative strategy; which tells us that no other party would have delivered a better solution.

Indeed Reform UK leader Nigel Farage gave Labour this message “keep on doing what you’re doing”. 

This is because the controversy over winter fuel payments benefitted his party, but at the same time he wasn’t offering anything in the national interest.

I repeat the point made by Fiona Bruce on BBC Question Time that many EU countries tried to bolster their own economies by taxing the rich, and all abandoned this policy because it did not work. 

I have been sparring with Reform UK supporters online, and they don’t like me undermining their political arguments. 

Some try to bully people into agreeing with them that the winter fuel payments policy was the government’s plan to freeze pensioners to death. 

When I challenged a Reform supporter over what would be in Reform’s budget; he called me a muppet because not being in government, Reform UK don’t need a budget. 

I see; vote for the party that doesn’t need a budget so that they can’t go wrong!

That sounds like a recipe for prosperity- not!

 The Labour Government seeks to further grow the economy by forming trade agreements with the European Union. “You can’t do that, we will lose the freedoms that Brexit gave us” is what I hear. 

Indeed; the freedoms which lead to child poverty, energy poverty, and other issues one could list. 

My brother emigrated to Norway 30 years ago, and I have just returned from there having attended a family occasion in Oslo. 

Norway never has been a member of the EU, but they have trade agreements with the EU; as do Canada and Japan. 

Apart from a hardcore minority in Norway who have nothing better to do, Norwegian society in general doesn’t give a damn about any concessions they may have to make to the EU; instead they just quietly get on with life. 

So what could go wrong if we make trade deals with the EU? 

I suppose that I would have an excuse not to cut the grass if a container ship ended up in my garden! 

Jeremy Whiting, Great Lumley, Chester-le-Street