Brexit will mean losing British jobs

Northfield Court, S10

Mr Olsen, (letters, January 25), castigates me for not sharing his vision of “living standards being improved by a successful Brexit”.

Yet every day there are reports of major companies planning to reduce jobs and/or relocate completely into the European Single Market in the event of Brexit, with or without a deal. Smaller businesses in those communities such as component suppliers, cafes, food shops etc will also be hard hit when earning power is removed by the loss of several hundred well paid jobs. I fear for those communities and the greater deprivation which will ensue.

We know only too well in South Yorkshire the effect of the loss of jobs in steel, mining and engineering in the 80s. It was money from the EU Regional and Social Funds which helped the area to recover to some extent. No such help will be forthcoming from the EU if we deliberately pull out and cause job losses by our own actions.

Money saved from no longer paying in to EU funds is highly unlikely to be used by our present government to help poorer areas, indeed they have actively taken money away for the last eight years, but rather to give tax cuts to the very wealthy such as Boris Johnson, Jacob Rees Mogg, Tim Martin, (Wetherspoons), and Aaron Banks, the billionaire funder of the Leave campaign. I assure Mr Olsen that I have far more concern for the less well-off of this country than any of the aforementioned people whose money will be safe whether we stay in or leave the EU.

As for peace in our continent, the building up of trust, democracy and cooperation between the nations of Europe through the EU means that, apart from Mr Putin, they no longer want to invade each other. There is a difference between the absence of war and real peace where resources are shared for the good of all through partnership and all countries have a say in how it works. NATO was and is a military alliance, very important during the Cold War and recently with Putin apparently wanting to recreate the Russian Empire.

A final note. I ask myself why Linda Mary Luke, who takes advantage of her right to live in Germany while telling us how dreadful the EU is, does not return to Sheffield, about which from her home in Kettwig she appears so well-informed; why not come and help to put right all the things she believes to be wrong with her home city? There are many voluntary organisations working to do just that and would welcome a new recruit!