Project fear continues (Stuart Hill)

The Scottish Parliament has released figures purporting to show that rural communities will suffer a 28 per cent shortfall in funding as a result of Brexit.

They omit to point out that the EU can only give out the money contributed by member states. It’s money out of our pockets that they distribute as grants and subsidies.

The surplus currently left in their coffers will, after Brexit, be available for UK and Scottish governments to provide even better support for rural communities, or whatever they choose to spend it on.

After Brexit the governments will have more money available – it’s up to us to hold them to account in ensuring that rural communities benefit and that it’s not frittered away on some pet project.

Meanwhile the stock market, widely predicted to crash by the remain camp, has, after an initial fall, rebounded to levels not seen for nearly a year.

Do those investors know something we don’t? After the initial fall was reported in the press as evidence of impending Armageddon, using the FTSE100 as a barometer seems to have lost favour with doom merchants as it rises obstinately to new highs.

The much-hyped fall in the market after Brexit was actually less than one 10 days previously that was apparently not seen to be significant and went totally unreported by the mainstream press.

The pound, meanwhile, has dropped and this has been seized upon to show how bad things apparently are. The opposite is the case.

A lower pound is good for UK exports – good for fishermen, much of whose fish is destined for markets outside the UK, good for tourism because it makes us a cheaper destination and makes going abroad more expensive.

It means more foreign visitors will come and more domestic holidaymakers will choose to take their holidays here.

Imports of cars and other goods from the EU are more expensive, making it more difficult for them to sell to us – was the pound being kept artificially high to encourage that trade in their favour and crash our industries?

I have a list of 25 major British companies that have relocated outside the UK with the help of EU grants. There has been a systematic and concerted dismantling of British industry orchestrated by the EU.

The fact that the EU Mafia has been unable to get its books audited for the past 20 years or so indicates the levels of endemic corruption.

The damage caused to our economy by EU membership will take time to repair and the UK is well out of that cesspit.

The UK has the upper hand in Brexit negotiations because the EU has more to lose. As the UK forges new trade deals with countries outside the EU, its hand becomes even stronger. EU Project Fear is finding it more and more difficult to appear credible as the benefits of Brexit become evident.

Of course, the way the UK has been treated by the EU is exactly replicated by the way the UK has treated Shetland, the first of the colonies. Our fishing industry was dismantled and our waters given away to promote UK ambitions.

Aside from the oil, Shetland subsidises the UK to the tune of £76 million per year – £7,600 per household. The oil taken from our waters contributes further billions to the UK treasury.

Brexit has important lessons for Shetland – just as the EU is worried about other members following the British example and EU countries like Spain are worried about their regions wanting autonomy, so are the UK and Scotland worried about Shetland.
Project Fear will be (and is being) used to keep Shetland in its place.

Stuart Hill
Ocraquoy,
Cunningsburgh.