Roger Arthur's Letter.

Roger Arthur, looks at the ‘divorce payments’ we’re allegedly have to pay the EU. The numbers are interesting:

Sir,

Over the years our Contract with the EU has been varied by Treaties. We did not vote for those treaties and the UK government had little or no influence over some of them. Those were effectively “variations to contract (VTC)” which must surely be on the Brexit balance sheet, as they would be in the commercial world.

The first VTC example is the original Treaty on Freedom of Movement for migrants, “with jobs”. But the words “with jobs” were massaged out, with the result that around 25% of migrants now come without jobs. The cost of that should be accounted for.

Then Blair axed our EU rebate, costing the UK £9.3billion between 2007 and 13, in exchange for “CAP reform”. Extrapolating that to 2019 would double the loss to around £18.6billion, less any CAP benefits to the UK – which may be negligible.

Also, the EU “no-bail-out” clause 125 was abandoned, followed by EU demands that the UK should contribute directly to Eurozone bail-outs. Clearly UK contributions to bailouts should also be on the balance sheet.

We could also cite the fact that the UK spends 0.5% more of GDP on defence than the EU average, or that we pay £2 for every £1 given back to the UK by the EU, or that the EU has had black holes in its accounts for over 20 years, all of which should be on the balance sheet. Then we should include the value of EU assets, which have been funded by the UK.

So the big question is why has the UK agreed to pay the EU £20bn, without consideration of the above and without a statement upon the tangible benefits (if any) which have been negotiated in exchange?

The EU always seems to say that whatever the UK offers is not enough. They are clearly not negotiating in good faith but are running down the clock, hoping for a UK government to capitulate as the Greeks did.

To counter that, we must hope that the PM has been working up a viable contingency exit plan, which may convince the EU that they will not be able to continue with their blocking tactics for much longer. But like the nuclear deterrent, it will only work if the other side knows that it is there and that it is truly viable.

So please Mrs May, how did you account for what the EU owes the UK, what benefits did you obtain in exchange for the £20bn promise to the EU and what is your emergency exit plan?

Respectfully, Roger Arthur, Ukip Daily.