Labour MEPs share many of the concerns expressed by Lord Owen about the potential threat to the NHS (Brexit is necessary to protect NHS from TTIP, says David Owen, theguardian.com, 6 April) and our public services, and have already taken action to ensure that negotiators address them in any EU-US TTIP trade deal.
The European parliament has a veto on all EU trade deals. Labour MEPs have taken a strong stand against the investor state dispute settlement (ISDS), in which multinationals can sue governments in separate investment courts, and are pushing for a full and comprehensive exclusion of all public services in the TTIP negotiations. The very concerns Lord Owen raises have already been addressed by MEPs and are now being considered by the negotiators.
His assertion that we should leave the EU because of these concerns is ludicrous. Leaving the EU will do nothing to address the Tory government’s desire to privatise the NHS or other services. It is our Tory government that was actively defending the inclusion of ISDS in TTIP and has refused to publish its legal advice on the potential implications for the NHS. In fact, as four former Labour health secretaries declared (Letters, 4 April), leaving the EU would be a disaster for our NHS.
The best way to defend Britain’s national interest and protect the NHS and other public services is to keep our seat at the negotiating table and get TTIP right in the first place.
David Martin MEP Socialists and Democrats Group spokesperson on international trade
Jude Kirton-Darling MEP Labour’s European parliament spokesperson on TTIP
• John Longworth, former director general of the British Chambers of Commerce, asserts that leaders of small businesses in the “real” economy are predominantly in favour of Brexit (I quit so I could tell the truth about Brexit and business, Opinion, 11 April). Does this mean that the managers of large businesses who advocate remaining in the EU are somehow not engaged in “real” economic activity?
He also tells us that we have a massive trade deficit with the EU, but that in contrast we have a trade surplus with the rest of world, where more of our exports are actually directed. He claims that most businesses exporting only to the rest of the world want us to leave the EU, apparently because “the burdens of membership of the union” cause them to be “uncompetitive in the world market”. But if they really are uncompetitive in these markets compared with those exporting to Europe, how come they are so successful?
Apparently he thinks that making trade deals is a good idea (though he isn’t entirely clear about this), since he mentions countries outside the EU such as Norway and Switzerland that have done so. He is also worried about the risks to the UK of having little say in future economic decisions made within the eurozone. But if that is a real concern, then those countries outside the EU, despite being able to make their own trade deals, must surely be at an even greater disadvantage than we are.
If Mr Longworth seriously wants to persuade those of us who wish to remain, or even those still undecided, then he might do better by at least ensuring his arguments are consistent.
Richard Hassall
Knaresborough, North Yorkshire
• Today, along with glossy flyers for a pizza delivery company, a garden centre and a few other bits and pieces that went straight into recycling, my postman delivered the leaflet outlining the case for remaining in the EU. Although I hadn’t expected hand delivery by a member of the cabinet, I had assumed that the £9m budget covered the cost of stuffing it into an envelope and addressing it to the named electors to increase the likelihood of recipients reading it.
Les Bright
Exeter, Devon
• The government’s referendum leaflet is a sad little document. It misses the one overriding consideration: that the EU brings the nations of Europe closer together and has been a key element in maintaining the peace since 1945. It is surely vital that we continue to support, not undermine, that process. And are we so intellectually bereft that each argument needs to be accompanied by a meaningless picture of a basket of groceries, container ship or a calendar, as though this were a child’s storybook?
Jan Arriens
Bishop’s Castle, Shropshire
• Thomas Piketty urges accelerated action on tax havens (Act now. Don’t wait for another crisis, Opinion, theguardian.com, 9 April). The UK parliament needs to discuss the 17 crown dependencies in the Panama Papers. Welsh-born Manx resident actor John Rhys-Davies’ petition 118647 to the UK parliament for the Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey residents’ right to vote in the EU referendum will allow full parliamentary discussion.
The referendum vote will be declared undemocratic, and neither representative nor inclusive without the equal suffrage of all UK citizens with right of residence wherever they reside.
There are many issues that demand parliamentary discussion. Getting 100,000 signatures on petition 118467 is a timely, necessary and urgent first democratic step.
Prof J Brian Matthews
Douglas, Isle of Man
• Unite does not share the view of Lord Owen. We wish to make it absolutely clear that there is no contradiction whatsoever in our stated position of vigorous opposition to the TTIP trade deal particularly around our demand for the exemption of the NHS, while campaigning firmly to remain in the European Union in the coming referendum.
Lord Owen refers to the legal opinion commissioned by Unite as evidence of the danger that the TTIP deal poses for the NHS. Lord Owen is correct on this; the legal advice does show there is real and significant danger for the NHS to be part of the TTIP trade deal.
However, the legal opinion Unite commissioned also made it very clear that the UK government has the power and ability to grant a full exemption to the NHS from the entire scope of TTIP.
Unite believes that the UK government granting a blanket exemption is currently the best way to protect the future of the NHS from any adverse effects from TTIP as other countries have done for key areas.
While Lord Owen has been a long-time defender of the NHS, many of the leading Tory figures in the leave campaign have been full supporters of the government’s reforms aimed at privatising and contracting out the NHS.
Unite will continue to campaign vigorously both for the carve-out of the NHS from TTIP and for a vote to remain in the EU in the interests of our members’ jobs, the employment rights that UK workers derive from EU law, and in the interests of peace and unity on the continent.
Gail Cartmail
Assistant general secretary, Unite the union
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