A Brexit opportunity for Jacob Rees-Mogg – rejoining the customs union

Letters to the editor: our readers share their views. Please send your letters to letters@independent.co.uk

Jacob Rees-Mogg (PA Wire)

Given the queues of lorries, the miles of red tape, the falling exports, the threatened businesses and the growing trade deficit, not to mention the Northern Ireland protocol, surely the biggest opportunity afforded Jacob Rees-Mogg by Brexit is the opportunity to rejoin the single market and customs union?

Helen Bore

Scarborough

A country without compassion

Lizzie Dearden reports that at least 12 innocent asylum seekers were jailed for crimes they did not commit. They have now been freed after appeal (News, 14 February), they will not receive an apology to which they have every right.

These individuals are being treated abysmally, very much in keeping with the “hostile environment” adopted by the Home Office They should be ashamed of their blatantly anti-immigrant stance. Should it really be necessary for members of the public to point out that arriving in the UK without documentation is not illegal? Who is advising the government?

Spurious attempts to criminalise individuals, in the way that home secretary Priti Patel is doing, reeks of anti-immigrant rhetoric. Having failed with this particular tactic, what will she try next? Having the Navy push flimsy inflatables back to France, swamping them with the wash from patrol vessels, or perhaps puncturing the rubber craft with sharp sticks?

Has the government no compassion? Do they not care about the appalling plight of our fellow humans?

Steve Edmondson

Cambridge

Our children can see the truth

Once again this shallow, simplistic and incompetent government thinks that schools can be instructed to manipulate pupils’ views and that this will solve real or imagined problems in society (‘Teachers to be ordered to avoid political bias in classrooms’, 14 February)

Teachers are highly experienced when it comes to presenting information to pupils in a balanced, non-partisan manner. Children are not fools who can be manipulated and, like everyone else, they are influenced by a range of experiences inside and outside school. Education is about developing enquiring minds where ideas develop from evidence, tolerance and experience.

Nadhim Zahawi would do better to send his guidance about fair, balanced, non-partisan language and discussion to his Conservative colleagues, particularly with regard to the recent slur on the leader of the opposition, for example. Perhaps he should be putting his energy into updating parliamentary rules about telling lies in the House of Commons rather than worrying about what seems to be an excellent introduction to the democratic process at Welbeck Primary School.

Can he not see that to draw attention to misleading information in the context of his government’s record makes him appear foolish and insincere? Perhaps it’s just another culture war.

David Lowndes

Southampton

I look forward to Nadhim Zahawi’s guidelines enforcing “balance” when touching on political matters in schools. Interesting discussions can be had, for example, comparing the human disasters of communist command economies with the widespread misery of unbridled capitalism. One could perhaps debate the merits of publicly versus privately owned utilities.

But how does one achieve balanced coverage of the subject of lying to parliament, breaking self-imposed laws and making scurrilous accusations against ones opponents? Maybe the principles in Niccolo Machiavelli’s The Prince could be examined. Teaching pupils that virtually anything is justified in the pursuit and retention of power will lead to some very “interesting” long-term outcomes.

Nick Donnelly

Dorset

Growing pains

Former prime minister Benjamin Disraeli famously warned against putting too much store in statistics, and the latest growth figures are a perfect example of why he was right.

On the face of it, 2021 was an absolutely fabulous year for the economy. Britain has had some boom years in the postwar period, but the 7.5 per cent growth last year was the fastest of the lot.

Yet 2021 can’t be seen in isolation. Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak are correct when they say the UK had the fastest growth in the G7 last year, yet what they curiously omit to add is that it came after the UK had the biggest contraction of any G7 nation a year earlier. The real story is that the economy collapsed by almost 10 per cent in 2020 and then recovered most of the lost ground last year. Indeed, while the economies of likes of the US, China and the eurozone have recovered to pre-pandemic levels, the UK still lags behind.

Before we get the bunting out, as the cost-of-living crisis hits this doesn’t herald a rosy outlook, and this year the UK economy’s growth will inevitably slow to its poor post-Brexit level.

Alex Orr

Edinburgh

Double standards on animal cruelty

Along with millions of other people, I was appalled to see the animal cruelty displayed by West Ham football Kurt Zouma when he kicked and hit his cat with accompanying laughter. This terrible abuse was rightly widely condemned and will hopefully lead to prosecution for animal cruelty and significant sanction – it should not be tolerated in a civilised society.

However, the cruelty exhibited by Zouma is dwarfed by the horrific abuse that happens every day on factory farms to the animals farmed for food. Animals are kept in appalling, filthy, cramped conditions – unable to move freely or express their natural behaviour, often suffering diseases and malformed – and then killed in the most inhumane ways such as having their heads bashed on a concrete floor, gassed, ground up whilst still alive, throats slit whilst still conscious and other equally cruel ways.

I hope everyone who was outraged by Kurt Zouma’s animal cruelty reflects that the food on their plate is the result of far more cruelty and suffering. Fortunately, it is possible to live on a cruelty-free plant-based diet which is as healthy – if not healthier – than diets based on animals. While going vegan is preferable and the most compassionate option, even just cutting down on meat and dairy will save animals from suffering cruel abuse.

Mark Dawes

London E11

Blokes failing upwards

From Lawrence Fox to Nigel Farage, and Piers Morgan to Jimmy Carr, why does the media just adore privileged blokes who “come out” as racist and or misogynist?

Back in the day I couldn’t understand why Farage – who stood seven times for parliament and never won – was paraded like a prize poodle by multiple media outlets including the BBC repeatedly. The more vile he was, the more airtime they gave him. It seemed like an aberration but then along came Lawrence Fox, a third rate actor few outside luvvy London had heard of. As soon as he “came out” with his views, the media started giving him more air time than his acting ever warranted.

Jimmy Carr with his sickening holocaust “joke” – despite his excusers banging on about cancel culture – is just the latest privileged bloke to bank some bigotry courtesy of the media.

Amanda Baker

Edinburgh

Playing the man

Ian Blackford, the SNP Commons leader, has renewed his attack on Boris Johnson as a “walking advert” for independence, when the prime minister visited Scotland yesterday. Indeed, that about sums it up, doesn’t it? The SNP argument for separating us from the rest of the UK can be found not in rigorously thought through, clearly articulated nationalist dogma, nor in irrefutable economic logic, but in relentless ad hominem attacks on the PM of the day, who may not be with us much longer. Work to do, Mr Blackford?

Martin Redfern

Melrose Roxburghshire

Say again?

I read with interest Ed Cumming’s piece about strange attempts to imitate various accents by professional actors (‘Why is TV filled with inexplicably weird voices all of a sudden?’, 14 February).

Surely your readers will remember Dick Van Dyke as a Cockney chimney sweep? Orr Sir Michael Caine as a Scot in Kidnapped, and as a German in The Eagle has Landed? There was also, memorably, Harrison Ford in The Last Crusade and Mel Gibson in Braveheart. Ten out of 10 for effort – but nul points for authenticity.

Richard Telfer

Northants