Could Britain really become America’s ‘51st state’?

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

It is about time the government scrutinised foreign buyers for the benefit of the British public (AFP/Getty)

I read Chris Blackhurst’s worrying article, regarding firms deserting the UK, and was horrified to see Britain called “America’s 51st state”.

Money from almost any country can buy successful British firms, football clubs and newspapers, returning the profits to the owner’s country of choice – thereby denying Britain of the benefits and having to run to the foreign management’s routine and style.

When Britain was a member of the European Commission, I understood why countries outside it wanted to have a base in Britain. But now that we have left the EC, will that need remain? I doubt it.

It is frightening to think that a hostile country could buy a newspaper to use as a propaganda machine. Or, as Blackhurst describes, that we could lose control of our large companies and be considered America’s 51st state.

I am not advocating having a ringfence imposed, but – as Blackhurst suggests – it is about time the government scrutinised foreign buyers for the benefit of the British public.

Keith Poole

Basingstoke

Sunak’s lies about migration

Hopeless Sunak caught lying about migration, again. This only serves to make him look increasingly desperate and emphasises his lack of integrity.

Note that this falsehood comes off the back of his recent lie regarding debt falling, on which he was rightly corrected. Insecure, weak and desperate, lying is now his only option. A Trump-style tactic, it failed Johnson and it is failing Sunak.

Dale Hughes

Address supplied

Good luck to those doing dry January

Thank you to, Judith Daniels, Rosamund Hall, and I believe earlier, Melanie Rickey for putting forward sensible views on alcohol consumption; it is an important issue and does not need polarisation, especially on true addiction and the need to seek help.

We are going to adhere to dry January and good luck to all those readers who are; to all those who choose not to, just remember this: “Lord, grant me sobriety, but just not yet!”

Robert Boston

Kingshill, Kent

Who’s more fearsome?

The pliosaur skull discovered on the Southern UK Jurassic coast has been hailed as a “sea monster” and the world’s “most fearsome predator”.

I beg to differ.

I doubt this creature on its most “fearsome” day ever notched up the death toll or the terror we associate with modern man-made weaponry and human aggression. I also doubt this prehistoric monster went in for the indiscriminate mass slaughter of its own kind we have become used to...

Give me a rampant pliosaur any day to self-righteous, bloodthirsty, greedy, humanosaurus.

Amanda Baker

Edinburgh

Is there no end to the callousness of this government?

In reply to a request for a comment on children needing life-saving, pain-relieving treatment, the government gives the stock reply: “We have put so many millions in to help the situation,” and then it latches on to a minor statistic which is improved to show how “well” it is doing. In this case, a reduction in the 18-month waiting list. So only 17 months in pain, hurrah!

Please, Sir Keir, make a manifesto pledge to answer questions without meaningless statements of money and heartless minor spin statistics. Answer questions honestly. It will be a refreshing change.

Rob Alliott

Cambridge