UK must ask EU for Brexit extension – Letters

Covid-19 means we need a longer transition period, says former MP

EU Chief Negotiator Michel Barnier (Picture: Olivier Matthys / POOL / AFP)

The UK’s ability to extend the period for negotiating a comprehensive future relationship with the EU27 runs out in six weeks.

Barring a breakthrough, this will mean the UK leaving the EU without any trading deal with the world’s biggest economic bloc. The EU supplies 80 per cent of our food imports and no deal further damages an already crippled economy.

If forced back on a US deal on damaging terms, Scotland’s agriculture industry could disappear overnight, our seafood industry perish, our universities go to the wall and the NHS begin to be sliced up into neat pieces for US companies to digest.

This will hit the UK at exactly the same time as we are struggling to recover from Covid-19, which is forecast to potentially lead to a 35 per cent decline in UK economic output.

There is no need for this damaging double whammy. Polling points to the fact that 77 per cent of British people (83 per cent of those in Scotland) want a breathing space. They want the UK to ask for an extension to the transition period – but the UK Government continues to rush towards the cliff edge.

At the very least we deserve this folly to be debated in Parliament.. A public debate is vital, ensuring that the Opposition can challenge this situation, exposing it for what it is and the damage it will inevitably lead to.

Mark Lazarowicz, Chair, The European Movement in Scotland, Queen Street, Edinburgh

Deal or no-deal?

The chances of the UK crashing out of the EU single market and customs union without a trade deal have surged and the UK government has admitted there will be checks on goods crossing the Irish Sea, with a new physical infrastructure at a series of ports – despite Boris Johnson’s promises there would be no such barriers.

Together with the latest Immigration Bill, which will lead to a shortage of fruit and vegetable pickers, this will damage Scotland’s economy at the very time the efforts of the UK government and the European Union should be concentrating on dealing with the dreadful Covid-19 epidemic.

That’s why all the opposition UK party leaders, except one, wrote to Michel Barnier seeking an extension to the timetable for talks. It is disgraceful that Sir Keir Starmer and the Labour Party again sat on the fence and refused to support sensible moves to delay Brexit negotiations until the Covid pandemic subsides.

Starmer’s attitude will allow the Tories to blame Covid for the economic fallout from a no-deal Brexit.

The post Brexit omens are not good, as on 13 May the Scottish Tory MPs helped to defeat an amendment to the UK Agriculture Bill to enshrine in law the principle that imported food would need to match Scottish farmers’ quality and animal welfare standards.

The UK government now has a blank cheque to trade away those high standards out of desperation for a deal, and in so doing undermine safe food production and animal welfare in Scotland.

Mary Thomas, Watson Crescent, Edinburgh

Seasonal cycle

After the most wonderful spring weather in March, April and May, news that one in five commuters is considering cycling to work in the future is no surprise. Perhaps they could be asked again towards the end of the year – when the roads are icy, the rain/hail is horizontal and the wind is howling?

SM Duthie, Traquair Park West, Edinburgh

Machine help

Reports on the deaths of care home residents inevitably stress PPE and testing as the only solution to the ongoing tragedy and lead one to conclude that if Boris Johnson had been a care home resident his chances of survival would have been slim. Yet the CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure) machine , which reportedly was used to treat the Prime Minister by saturating his blood with oxygen, is apparently simple enough for people to use in their own homes (typically to treat sleep apnoea) and delivers oxygen in a non-invasive way. One doctor told BBC Radio 4’s The NHS Front Line that if the machine is used early enough it can prevent patients deteriorating and needing complex ventilators.

If it was an alternative to receiving no medical treatment and being left to die in my care home, gasping for air, with my carers unable to help, I know I would welcome it. What would I have to lose?

Shouldn’t every care home be purchasing these machines before the second coronavirus wave strikes?

John Robertson, Jamiesons Court, Roxburgh

It’s too early

My wife is a carer looking after four older people, two and three times per day, while I am staying at home until there is a properly organised system for me to return to work in construction.

Boris Johnson and his “team” do not seem to grasp the reality that an early end of lockdown will risk a second wave of infection and that schools and businesses returning to “normal” could cost more lives and increase business failures.

His bumbling speeches and responses to questions are starkly different to the measured approach of Scottish, Welsh and Northern Ireland leaders .

The Health and Safety Act and regulations are clear that employers must provide a safe workplace no matter the costs involved and I foresee a raft of claims against employers, including NHS and social care systems.

The paltry sum offered by the government to NHS workers’ next of kin in the event they die is derogatory and insulting in that it is only about two years of wages for families losing their main wage earners.

Every UK government statement and promise is a joke and in very bad taste.

Archie Finlayson, Balgownie Croft, Dallas, Moray

Behind the curve

Nicola Sturgeon’s route map says that in Phase One from 28 May more outdoor activity (sunbathing, sitting in parks, meeting people from other households, all while adhering to social distancing) will be permitted. Yet people were indulging in all these activities across Scotland’s beaches this week, with many having travelled out of their local areas for recreation, although this isn’t supposedly allowed until 28 May.

Phase One also envisages agriculture and forestry resuming but in the fields of lambs I see from my house the farmers have never – thankfully – stopped working.

Phase One also encompasses “no longer discouraging takeaways and drive-throughs from opening” but again thankfully takeaways in Anstruther, Cupar and St Andrews have been open for some weeks.

It seems to me that Nicola Sturgeon’s route map is behind the curve and she needs to get in step with what the great Scottish public is already doing.

Otherwise this intricate and illogical staggered plan of dos and don’ts will only undermine the credibility of the First Minister and empower ever more people to go their own way.

Linda Holt, (Independent Councillor East Neuk & Landward), Dreel House, Pittenweem, Anstruther

Questions, questions

I share Douglas Cowe’s view that Kenny MacAskill might devote a series of his regular articles in The Scotsman to the economics of and independent Scotland (Letters, 21 May).

I would like to assist Mr MacAskill in suggesting a brief list of subjects he might select to consider because of the importance of these.

What currency would an independent Scotland start using from day one? The pound, with monetary policy including interest rates being solely determined by the Bank of England to suit rUK?

Who would be Scotland’s lender of last resort?

When would a national bank and Scottish currency be established and how would it be financed?

How would Scotland be able to borrow more than £12 billion pa to cover the budget deficit or what specific reductions would the Government make to reduce the GERS deficit and annual expenditure to balance the books?

On top of that, how would the Government provide finance to cover the on-shore trade deficit of around £12bn with oil exports and revenue a distant prospect?

How would the Government finance the cost of renewable obligations should rUK decline to allow Scotland to stay in the Grid, where renewables are currently financed 92 per cent by rUK tax payers? Scotland has a disproportionate population of wind turbines needing subsidies running into billions of pounds each year.

There are many other important issues needing clarification, but the above would provide a start to a discussion focusing on the essentials for economic survival and prosperity rather than on appeals to the heart.

John Peter, Monks Road, Airdrie, Lanarkshire

Hit record

Douglas Cowe assumes, as many do, that should Scotland ever gain political independence it would be ruled by the SNP.

Certainly the SNP is a well-organised party which currently enjoys widespread support and in the aftermath of independence it is likely it would be involved in government.

However, as its critics keep pointing out, its focus is on obtaining independence and with that achieved, splits over policy are likely to emerge and electoral support drift away to other parties no longer stigmatised as pro-Union.

Mr Cowe also regards the SNP’s “financial record” as a major stumbling block on the road to independence.

In fact, as I understand it, the Scottish Government’s record is exemplary as it is obliged to balance its budget every year and is allowed very limited borrowing powers.

As regards the wider economy, I think most people see that as the province of Westminster in so far as it can be directed by any government, which is probably much less than is often supposed and than politicians would have us believe – especially when it is doing well.

S Beck, Craigleith Drive, Edinburgh

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