Government policy to be blamed for Britain’s decline, not Brexit - Yorkshire Post Letters

Reacting to the recurrent theme of blaming Brexit for more or less everything that is wrong with the UK, I would suggest memories are very short.

In the 80s and 90s the notion was promoted that financial services would power the UK forward, manufacturing being regarded as an obsolete activity.

During the period of membership of that esteemed organisation, the EU, our struggling manufacturers, notably steel makers, complained about our uncompetitive, high energy prices and requested government help.

Their pleas were rejected as being 'against EU rules'.

Meanwhile the French and German governments gave generous subsidies to their 'key' industries. Indeed, several member countries have a history of accepting the EU rules of which they approve, and rejecting or ignoring those which they don't. But the UK 'obeyed the rules' and suffered accordingly.

And still, the UK inflicts further self harm by the pompous 'world leading' obsessive blinkered dash to 'net zero'. Strategic businesses have been sold to foreign interests, notably and very worryingly in many cases to Chinese government-backed organisations. Thousands of jobs have been exported in this process.

A coal mine in Cumbria which could support the remnants of the steel industry and create hundreds of local jobs is robustly opposed.

The vociferous greens claim there could be thousands of sustainable jobs if the mine was rejected, a claim with zero evidential backup.

The anti-frackers are happy for gas to be extracted in America, the Middle East and Australia, liquified, trans-shipped across thousands of miles and imported at huge financial and environmental cost to the UK. The same group protested at the use of fracking here.

The UK could, and surely should be, self-sufficient in energy production.

The landscape and seascape swamped with wind turbines (foreign made and foreign owned in most cases) may be a matter of personal visual taste but the covering of thousands of acres of good agricultural land with solar panels defeats the declared quest for food security.

Electric vehicles are touted as 'zero emission' (but only at point of usage) ignoring the huge environmental impact in their production plus the use of child and slave labour involved in sourcing materials to make the batteries.

The Balance of Payments and the National Debt are now astronomical numbers, which someday will have to be repaid.

Don't blame Brexit, blame years of incompetent government, accelerated by the current corrupt gang who look after the wealthy but have little concept of compassion for, or even awareness of, the society struggling beneath them.