LETTER: I know Brexit will be bad for us
A reader highlights fears over Brexit.
Alan Harrison, letters 2 July, managed to cover the political spectrum. Alan on the left, Keith Jones on the right and me in the middle. I have been pushed into the middle by the other two. Alan believes in strong unions, I believe in constructive unions and Alan no doubt still hankers after Jeremy Corbyn. Sorry Alan you must get used to the fact that because Jeremy Corbyn wouldn't stand down as leader, your party lost the election and I have been lumbered with Brexit. I believe in constructive unions Alan, not the bullying sort that gave us Margaret Thatcher.
I have this continuous picture in my mind of the managing director of one of my customers trying to hold back tears because two union men had walked into his office and said that if he didn't give them what they wanted they would stop all movements in and out of his works. That was about 45 years ago. As for Keith and his admiration for Margaret Thatcher, yes the unions did need to behave much more responsibly but Margaret Thatcher came to believe she was God. This is a common tendency of those on the right; I won't mention the most obvious example.
Margaret Thatcher allowed interest rates to spiral out of control; those who had taken out big mortgages couldn't pay the interest and the collapse of the building industry followed. Companies that had been going for a hundred years or more went to the wall. I had a building supplies business with over £300,000 worth of stock which I couldn't sell. I had to close my company down. Zero hours contracts and fake self employment are not good neither are the huge companies who won't pay their tax. However, Alan, the Labour party is as much to blame as the Conservatives because if they had been less left dominated they would be in power and we wouldn't have these things.
I have spent thousands of hours studying all aspects of Brexit; for 15 years I travelled around Europe and the Far East buying and selling steel products. I worked in engineering based companies from around 1966 to about 2009 and I witnessed a natural and good for the UK progression towards trading with the EU. Whatever Keith Jones or Jeremy Corbyn thinks I know that Brexit will be bad for us.
Roger Watts, Walsall
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