Readers Letters: Starmer should have had UK join EFTA trade allies

Keir Starmer's team has negotiated a bad deal for Britain's fishermen, believes reader (Picture: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

Brexit has failed. The economy has hardly grown since before the pandemic and our businesses are tied up in red tape bureaucracy as a result of Boris Johnson’s deal with the EU. Everything from langoustines to whisky is affected and we can no longer trade freely with our closest trade partner.

Switzerland, Iceland and Norway realised that an economic partnership was preferable to a political union with continental Europe and formed the European Free Trade Agreement (EFTA), which reduces trade barriers and promotes trade with the EU and third party countries. It provides freedom of movement of goods and services within the EU. This has a lot of similarities with Labour’s position and one wonders why the UK did not join EFTA.

While Scottish fishermen would have shared waters with Iceland and Norway, they would not have been subjected to the much larger French and Spanish fleets. EFTA is in a stronger position to negotiate annual fishing agreements with the EU and the UK already has good relations with Norway and Iceland on fishing.

The UK has sold out its annual negotiating right for a fixed 12-year agreement that fishing leaders view as a “total capitulation to the EU”. In return it gets some notional trade agreements worth a tiny fraction of the benefits that being in the EU brought. By joining EFTA the UK would have been in a stronger negotiating position with the EU and able to move much faster towards firmer and substantial agreements on trade, taking us much closer to the benefits we have lost. Instead, Labour would prefer to start negotiations from scratch, taking years.

Neil Anderson, Edinburgh

Bad deal

Various words have been used to describe the supposed “deal” Sir Keir Starmer has negotiated with the EU, such as “humiliation” and “capitulation”.

However, one might add “submissiveness” to that list. Is it not somewhat ironic that in this 80th anniversary year of VE Day, he concedes to Europe (and in particular to France) on almost every aspect of the deal, and in particular, the betrayal of our fishing industry.

The Prime Minister lauds his “deal” and yet cannot detail what the UK will pay to access the EU Defence fund, nor the costs or the detail around how we align to the food standards system. This country will fall under the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice in addition to the European Court of Human Rights. The UK will have absolutely no input into the laws and structures of such courts. Can one imagine the likes of the USA or Canada or Australia or Japan becoming subservient to foreign courts?

Whether one agreed with Brexit or not, there is little doubt that this deal undermines our sovereignty and ability to control our own destiny. The likes of President Emmanuel Macron, Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Ursula von der Leyen will have huge smiles, if not smirks, on their faces following this “deal”.

Richard Allison, Edinburgh

Self-sabotage

Once again in our dealings with the EU we are all talking about the fishing industry. That industry which was a key deliverer of Brexit in many people’s minds, that accounts for a whopping 0.03 per cent of the UK economy.

When is someone in government going to grow up and tell the fishing industry the truth, that in real terms they are not that important to the UK and that the industry that pushed for Brexit has already done enough damage to the UK economy without damaging future relations with the EU.

Alexander Lunn, Edinburgh

Conflict of interest

Alasdair HM Adam (Letters, 20 May) hits the nail on the head when he says the decision by a Scottish Government Reporter to award planning permission in principle to the new Flamingo Land will be perceived as a gross conflict of interest as the land is owned by the Scottish Government’s commercial wing, Scottish Enterprise.

The same scenario applies to planning applications for Section 36 wind farms on publicly owned land which are granted consent by Scottish Ministers. The Scottish Government stands to benefit from approximately £14 million in rental income and over £100,000 a year in business rates payments which flow into the Scottish economy. This includes income through Forestry and Land Scotland, and the Scottish Ministers’ Crofting Estates.

It’s an obvious incentive to grant permission to everything that comes their way.

Aileen Jackson, Scotland Against Spin, Uplawmoor, East Renfrewshire

Land levy

Responding to Councillor Gordon Murray's letter on the upcoming Land Reform Bill (19 May), the Bill is fine as far as it goes, but the big Scottish land question concerns the trousering by “rent-seekers” of publicly created, urban site-values.

Some of these are recovered for revenue by various means, but there are loopholes to be exploited by hordes of company experts. The Scottish Government has the power to introduce a national levy on site-values, and in 2022 was encouraged to do so by a Holyrood commission. Also in 2022, the Land Commission proposed a cadastral survey as the prerequisite to such a levy, but SNP ministers have failed to act on that.

This new source of revenue could serve as the basis of a Citizens' Income; indeed an amount equivalent to the rental of minimum urban floor-space would in theory abolish homelessness. So why on Earth isn't the Scottish Government going for it?!

George Morton, Rosyth, Fife

Putin problem

It would have been fascinating, if scary, to eavesdrop on the two-hour telephone conversation between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin (your report, 20 May). I wonder if Putin got a word in edgeways. To be fair, Trump spoke also with Vlodomyr Zelensky, presumably at much shorter length.

One can only hope that these conversations bear fruit in a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia which will last. It's to the everlasting credit of the Ukrainians, army and people, that Putin's “military operation”, which was meant to last three days, has dragged on for three years, and counting, without any resolution.

Whereas the Ukrainians have vowed to defend their country at any cost, the Russians' cost, in both lives and morale, is even greater.

This is very much Putin's military operation, and is far from being in his people's name.

Arguably, there can be no lasting peace until he is removed from power and faces the inevitable fate of being tried as a war criminal.

Both Russians and Ukrainians deserve no less.

Ian Petrie, Edinburgh

Act now on Gaza

When Nicola Sturgeon was asked at the weekend what she thought of the Prime Minister's recent immigration speech she answered, “Of course he knew, that was a very deliberate dog whistle, and you know what? Shame on him.” (Labour MP Diane Abbott said she believed Sir Keir was more right wing on immigration than erstwhile Tory Prime Minister Ted Heath had been.)

The former first minister's comment was met with an angry response from MSP Jackie Baillie, who voiced a number of criticisms, including “Nicola leaves behind her an atrocious record of soaring levels of homeless children.”

We all know that no part of the UK can be complacent as far as this subject is concerned but if the deputy leader of Scottish Labour is genuinely concerned for child welfare surely she should be demanding that the UK Government immediately cease supplying Israel with arms.

These weapons are not only contributing to hundreds of thousands of Palestinian children having their homes completely destroyed but also to dozens being killed every week. It was recently revealed that Labour licensed exports of more military equipment to Israel in the last three months of 2024 than Tory governments did in the three years 2020-23! A quite astonishing and shameful statistic.

Where is Dame Jackie's outrage over this? If, for example, she and Anas Sarwar made clear to the Prime Minister that continuing to supply arms to Israel was a resignation matter as far as they were concerned it would put considerable pressure on him to do the humane thing. The situation in Gaza is now worse than horrific and while Sir Keir Starmer continues to look the other way, even some on the opposition benches are acknowledging it.

A few days ago Sir Edward Leigh, Tory MP for Gainsborough, announced: “I've been a member of the Conservative Friends of Israel for more than 40 years – but you cannot starve a whole people. Many of us are asking, when is a genocide not a genocide?” Urgent action is required and it is time for Labour MPs and MSPs to stand up and be counted!

Alan Woodcock, Dundee

Full marks

Once again I commend Cameron’s Wyllie’s wise and informed article on schools and education (Perspective, 19 May). As a former principal secondary teacher who served under four headteachers, I would like to add the supreme importance of a good, quality headteacher.

Three of mine were excellent , one less so, and the difference they made to both education and discipline of their pupils was huge. They had excellent communication skill and showed great respect for all, pupils, teachers, parents, cleaners et al. Additionally, the special units for the less able provided an exceptional education outwith mainstream.

Lorna Donaldson, Stirling

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