Director of Softley Kitchens Tim Coles says vote Brexit

I’ve just read the article EU What? I’m not surprised about the results of the iKBBI poll either, but mainly because, as a general rule, I believe that most small businessmen and women and entrepreneurs are likely to be in favour of Brexit, whereas the Establishment, the big banks and big business are on the Remain side. They were also in favour of Britain’s disastrous entry into the Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM), which resulted in interest rates rising to 16% and leaving many of us wondering just how we were going to pay the mortgage. These were the same people and organisations who were also in favour of replacing the pound with the Euro, a move which would have left us in the position of Greece today. History has proved that we should ignore the scare tactics of such people.

Ruling power

Unfortunately, many younger people have little knowledge of our country’s history and think that, as a small island, we cannot rule ourselves. This is nonsense of course. We used to run a third of the world, let alone just our own little island. We have only been shackled within the EU and its former guises, the EEC, the EC etc, for 40 years. And, of course, during that time it has morphed from simply being a free trading bloc into an anti-democratic, supranational power moving toward its stated aim of a United States of Europe.

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It is one that has presided over disastrous migration and economic policies, which have left a significant proportion of the states within it verging on bankruptcy. The scale of misery among poor people in Greece and Spain (where there is nearly 50% youth unemployment), for instance, is unbelievable. The economies of France and Italy are in dire straits. It is not at all clear that the EU can hold together and it’s conceivable that internal violent conflict could result. If that happened it would be far safer to be out than in.

Continue to trade

If we leave and pull out of the single market, it doesn’t mean that we can’t trade with Europe, as ‘Project Fear’ tries to make out. Only a tiny percentage of our companies actually export to Europe anyway (even though all our companies are subject to the regulations that flood in from the EU). But those who do, will continue to be able to do so (as will the many European companies who trade in Britain – we import more from the EU than we export to it). What Brexit will do is free us to do deals with the Commonwealth and countries such as China and the US, if we so wish, which, within the EU, we are not allowed to do independently. The EU still has no trade deal with either of these countries. But it doesn’t stop Chinese goods from being in the shops of course.

Outside the EU, we will be free to thrive and reach out to the rest of the world. Rather than our being ‘Little Englanders’, as the Remainiacs like to imply; it is they who are ‘Little Europeans’. It is often said that the EU funds so many worthwhile projects in this country that we would lose out if we left. That is, of course, absurd. The EU only funds anything with money that the British taxpayer first sends to the EU. Following Brexit we will have this money to still spend on such projects – if the British people want to. We will, of course, also have, in addition, the £10 billion pounds or so net payment that we make to the EU annually, to do with as we please.

Choose our representatives

What it all boils down to is that the British people should be able to kick out the people who make our laws, if they don’t like them. Brexit will mean we are able to do that every 5 years at a general election. At the moment, 50% of our laws are made by unelected people in Europe. Their Parliament (which incidentally is in two different places, so the whole shebang has to up and move each month from Brussels to Strasbourg) is a reforming committee, with less power than the House of Lords in this country. It cannot propose policies or laws like you would expect a Parliament to be able to do. And even within that parliament, our MEPs, most of whom we have no idea who they are, are in different groupings and are not talking with one voice on behalf of the UK. Well, you did ask if there was anyone who was prepared to ‘nail their colours to the mast’.