IT was disturbing to read all of the letters from little Englanders in Saturday’s HAS.

These people have clearly failed to see the bigger picture, and have not grasped the implications of Britain leaving the EU. These include:

  • How much the EU will still cost us if we leave; Norway chooses to be outside the EU, but has to pay £340m each year simply to be able to trade with Europe. Experts say the UK would have to pay up to half our current contribution to trade with EU countries from outside; a high price to pay to have no say, and with none of that money finding its way back to us.
  • Immigration is a common fear in those letters, without any understanding that it’ll still happen. This Government has hacked at public services to the extent that the Home Office has little chance of keeping tabs on who are arriving here, and staying. We are taking many more people from outside the EU than we have to, simply because the immigration authorities cannot cope. Leaving the EU will not change that. And anyway, almost all of us have immigrants in our family tree. Be fair.
  • As a worker, I understand the protection I enjoy from EU law. This Tory Government has attacked the common man from all sides under the blatant lie of austerity; they would attack us even more if EU legislation wasn’t holding them back.
  • Living in the North-East, we need to appreciate how much we get back from the EU in grants because we need that help. Any serious development projects we have all seem to receive EU money. London does not get this, because London does not need it – there’s never been a recession down there, because the Tories give London everything it needs. The brazen hypocrisy of arguing for austerity while spending billions on Crossrail and HS2 never fails to astound me.
  • If the UK decides to leave, but Scotland votes to remain, you can bet there’ll be another independence vote, and we all know which way that will go.

Finally, if you don’t believe any of the above, face a fact: cheap flights to Europe will become a thing of the past, and even if you do travel, you’ll face long queues at airports in the non-EU line, rather than simply being waved through.

Some people think that we can go back to the 1960s, as if that was the golden era. It wasn’t. Leaving will send us back 50 years, The clincher for me is that Trump, Farage and Johnson are advocating Brexit. If the Three Stooges say ‘Out’, the correct verdict must be ‘In’.

Alan Price, Gateshead