ES Views: Europe is pressing on, as we continue to squabble

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Does the EU's free trade deal with Japan mean the UK is being left behind?
EPA
10 July 2017
WEST END FINAL

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The period after the EU referendum has been dominated by Brexiteers reassuring us that everything will be fine, repeating the mantra that “the EU needs us more than we need it”. Its free trade deal with Japan, the world’s third-largest economy, would suggest this is now inaccurate.

While we continue to stutter in the Brexit negotiations and fight among ourselves about the result of a referendum that concluded nearly a year ago, the EU appears to be pressing on to safeguard its interests. While it is undeniable that initially the EU was devastated at the thought of the UK leaving, under Theresa May we have shown our true, nasty colours by using EU citizens as pawns in negotiations and threatening to withdraw our co-operation on security.

Perhaps now the EU has realised that we weren’t so valuable after all, and it is indeed much better off without us?
James White


I assume that as part of Japan’s free- trade deal with the European Union it will have to accept the free movement of people, pay into the EU budget, accept the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice and let the EU negotiate any trade deals it wishes to make with other countries.

It only seems fair, given that these are the terms the EU say Britain must accept.
Stuart Robinson

Your very short editorial [“Brexit: what they said”, Comment, July 6] gave a tiny hint that Brexit really is turning out to be the catastrophe predicted by everybody except the Conservative Right and xenophobic voters.

All the supposed free-trade deals aren’t happening and prices are rocketing. The deficit, meanwhile, is out of control. The world is treating us like the idiots we have become. It is the usual custom when you are about to jump over a cliff to take a look into the abyss. The Tories would rather we didn’t think but just jumped.

We now need a period of calm so that we can have the genuine debate on Brexit that we were never allowed to have.
Richard Spivack

Your editorial poses some questions purporting to expose the false promises of the Leave camp at the referendum. What in fact they expose is the increasing hollowness of the Remain camp’s rhetoric.

The first question asks: “Today the EU reached agreement on a free-trade deal with Japan, which won’t cover Britain when we leave. Didn’t Brexiteers promise us the opposite would happen?” The answer is no. They said that, once out of the EU, Britain would be free to negotiate individual free-trade deals with the rest of the world — a self-evident truth if ever there was one.
Martin R Maloney


Building bridges after the Grenfell disaster

Elizabeth Campbell, the new leader of Kensington and Chelsea council, states in her interview that it is an easy dig to say rich people in Kensington “don’t care about the poor” [July 6]. The outpouring of sympathy and the donations after Grenfell show that to be untrue.

If the council had not spent years pandering to the imagined self-interests of wealthier residents, this crisis may have been averted. Council tax has not been put up for seven years and has given rich residents an effective tax cut. All households have been given a £100 tax rebate, giving the impression that everything is functioning safely. The council is now sitting on reserves of around £300 million while cutting and outsourcing any public services it can.

We await the findings of the public inquiry into the causes of the fire but it is clear that housing stock has suffered from under-investment. It seems it is the council, not residents, that does not care about the poor.
Helen Ashby

I suggested in the Lords last week that a cross-party administration should be formed in Kensington and Chelsea. Trust in the Conservative Party has fallen so low, and the people of the borough need to see their elected representatives working together on the basis of a clear, published plan. Then their faith in the council would begin to be restored.
Alistair Lexden, House of Lords (Con)


Train chaos makes it hard to work

As the usual pattern goes, train fares are going up with no discernible improvement to the service and, no doubt, appalling delays to come. As a self-employed worker this will be catastrophic for me. Who will give me work, knowing I can’t get there?

I write this stuck on a train running 15 minutes late. On Wednesday my train was cancelled, as it was the day before. The excuse was that it was a bit late and there was another train to the same destination 15 minutes later.

Southeastern is averaging less than 90 per cent punctuality a day — it’s way worse during rush hour. This is the reality commuters face.
M Green

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Lower crucial limits are crucial to the streets

Despite figures showing the majority of drivers break the 20mph speed limit, lower speed limits are making our streets safer [“Eighty per cent of drivers ignore 20mph limits”, July 3).

The average speed that drivers go at is only 21-25mph; this compares to 28-31mph in 30mph limit zones. This is clear evidence that the 20mph zones are reducing the average speed of traffic, making our streets safer.

It is vital that people realise the facts around 20mph. If a pedestrian is struck by a vehicle at 20mph, they have a 97 per cent chance of survival. This reduces with every mile driven faster, going down to 50 per cent at 30mph. Lower speed limits increase road safety and this undoubtedly helps people feel more comfortable walking on our streets, which is better for their health and the local environment.

There has been a widespread rise in the number of 20mph zones in the UK — this is encouraging to see and is something we all should be supporting.

Joe Irvin, chief executive, London Living Streets

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Wimbledon must tackle its queues

If there is one problem with Wimbledon, it is that those who miss out on tickets through the ballot and cannot afford the tickets sold by agencies on the internet must join “The Queue”, as I did on Thursday.

This meant being directed to the large green park opposite the Wimbledon grounds, borrowed partly from Merton council. There were three lines of queues about 500 metres long arranged. From the back to the front, we had to wait for about three hours and the tickets ranged from £25 for general admission to £74 for Court No 1.

I feel that only the fit and young could bear to queue for this long in the summer heat. Surely there must be a better way to sort out the ticket madness? The organisers must do better to get fans in with cheaper tickets.
Manfred Simeoni

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