Today’s letters provide readers with a slew of facts that can and should be used in arguments everywhere now that the summer holidays are over and we get into Conference season next month. The first letter is from David Challice who needs no introduction on these pages:

Sir,

You might be interested in a few examples of Project Fear scaremongering, and the reality afterwards. This has been cut-down from an article by Asa Bennet in the Daily Telegraph (25/8/18):

Recession by Christmas:

The Treasury (under George Osborne) predicted a Leave vote would see the economy “fall into recession with four quarters of negative growth”.

Reality: The UK has not had a single quarter of negative growth

Fear:

The Treasury predicted ministers would have to borrow £10’s of billions to plug the economic shortfall.

Reality: Government spending is currently at its lowest for 16 years.

Lower Productivity:

The Treasury used “cautious assumptions” to warn of lower productivity.

Reality: Productivity has risen 0.9% in the last quarter; the first rise since 2016 and the biggest increase since 2011.

House Prices:

George Osborne said: “The country and the people in  the country are going to be poorer. The Treasury analysis shows there would be a hit to the value of people’s homes by at least 10% and up to 18%”

Reality: House prices have gone up by 7%.

Unemployment:

The Treasury predicted  “unemployment would increase by around 500,000.”, adding it could be as high as 800,000.

Reality: The unemployment rate has fallen from 4.9% to 4%. The lowest for 40 years.

Youth Unemployment:

The Treasury warned that Youth Unemployment would rise to 70,000;  possibly to 100,000.

Reality: Youth unemployment has fallen from 13.6% to 11.3%. The lowest level on record.

Shrinking Wages:

The Treasury warned real wages would fall between 2.8% and 4%  after a Leave vote.

Reality: Latest figures from the Office of National Statistics show that real wages not only rose in the month after the Referendum, but are currently 0.8% higher than in June 2016.

The above clearly demonstrates that the Treasury has a very good record of getting it spectacularly wrong and would be better off playing “pin the tail on the donkey”. Talking of Eeeyores, the current Chancellor of the Exchequer, Phillip Hammond, recently warned of economic collapse in 15 years’ time if we have a “hard” Brexit. No Chancellor (or Governor of the Bank of England, come to that) can possibly predict anything so far ahead with any shred of accuracy. After all, would Mr Hammond have predicted the Brexit Referendum itself had he been in post in 2015? Events happen. Things change.  Societies are buffeted by unexpected occurrences, some of them good, some bad.

As for Brexit, the job of Government is to prepare, not scare. The people have voted.  We are leaving the EU. Now the task is to do it properly without yet more absurd Private Fraser predictions of doom. Even if Mr Hammond would prefer the vote to have gone a different way, his job now is to get on and do it.  If he’s not up to it, he should hand over to someone who is.

Respectfully, David Challice, UKIP Head Office

In the next letter, our outstanding correspondent Roger Arthur also provides plain facts with which to silence remainers:

Sir,

Some people still seem to worry that jobs will be lost, as a result of Brexit. My response is below:

If UK exports to the EU were on a rising trend, then you could argue that EU membership is good for business and jobs.  But they are not – they are FALLING.

Our exports to the EU have fallen to around 43%, while those to the rest of the world have continued to rise..

The list below shows just how good EU membership has been. In some cases EU (taxpayer’s) money has even been used to drive UK jobs overseas:

  1.      Cadbury moved its factory to Poland 2011
  2.      Ford Transit moved to Turkey 2013 with EU grant.
  3.      Jaguar Land Rover recently agreed to build a new plant in Slovakia, owned by Tata.
  4.      Peugeot closed its Ryton (was Rootes Group) plant and moved production to Slovakia.
  5.      The British Army’s new Ajax fighting vehicles to be built in SPAIN using SWEDISH steel at the request of the EU to support jobs in Spain, rather than in Wales.
  6.      Crown Closures, Bournemouth (Was METAL BOX), gone to Poland, once employed 1,200.
  7.      Hornby, plus other toys and models, have gone abroad, along with patents.
  8.      Gillette has gone to eastern Europe.
  9.      Texas Instruments Greenock have gone to Germany.
  10.      Indesit at Bodelwyddan Wales has gone
  11.      Sekisui Alveo, Merthyr Tydfil Industrial Parkfoam plant is to relocate production to  the Netherlands.
  12.      Hoover’s Merthyr factory moved to Czech Republic and the Far East, by Italian company Candy.
  13.      ICI integration into Holland’s Akzo Nobel with EU bank loan and within days of the merger, several factories in the UK, were closed, losing 3,500 jobs
  14.      Boots has sold facilities to Stefano Pessin, who have based their HQ in Switzerland, avoiding tax to the tune of £80 million a year.
  15.      JDS Uniphase bought up UK companies using EU ‘regeneration’ grants, created a pollution nightmare and closed it all down leaving 1,200 jobless.
  16.      Many British invention patents have been passed to foreign companies, many of them in the EU.

The IMF predicts that 90% in global growth will come from outside of Europe, over the next two decades. That is where 93% of the world’s population lives and they are creating wealth at a faster rate than the EU is.

Yes there will be short term problems, but try to look at the enormous long term benefits.

Respectfully, Roger Arthur

Finally, Gerrie Williams of the UKIP Newton Abbot Branch sent in the following disquieting information:

Sir,

I do not know whether lots of people have seen this, and you have therefore had a million pointing it out. If not, then perhaps this is of interest:

It was with total incredulity, that I came across the pronouncement of a John Bache, who is the Chairman of the Magistrates Association. Apparently we are 9,000 Magistrates short, there being only 16,000 left. This has been happening over time, since younger people do not take over when Magistrates reach the age at which they must retire……a phenomenon to be found in every branch of civic society. Mr. Bache feels that the shortfall should be made up by the ethnic minorities, which would serve the more important goal of  greater diversity.

It could not for an instant be thought that this is because those minorities have no interest in helping to maintain law and order. No, it is course, our fault, and the way to make them feel less alienated by the justice system, is to have those accused, for whom it is deemed suitable, to be tried by convicts.

The old adage about turning the asylum over to the lunatics would seem to be particularly relevant to this situation, but the ‘lunatics’ are surely not the  prospective accused, nor the convicts, but the entire Magistrates Association if they agree with this suggestion by their Chairman. The message which that would send out, is surely nothing less than lunacy.

Respectfully, Gerrie Williams, Press and Campaigns Secretary, UKIP Newton Abbot Branch

       

 

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