HISTORY will tell Peter Sowerby how we will escape the clutches of the EU.

After 43 years of EU laws and regulations, the Government and business have become institutionalised and seem to obey ‘orders’ without question.

Untanglement from this could take years we are told. It need not, we simply need to follow the example of India in 1947. When it achieved independence it incorporated all British imperial statutes into law and then proceeded, at its leisure, to remove measures it either didn’t need or didn’t like.

Despite years of trying, the EU hasn’t forged a trade deal with either America or China, the world’s two largest economies.The EU is also an inward-looking protectionist bloc; imposing a common external tariff on all imports from 85 per cent of the world economy beyond.

Much is made of the 53 free-trade agreements the EU has struck, but these are mainly with tiny countries.

To sum up: America has no trade deal with China, China has no deal with the EU and the EU has no deal with America. International trade happens when commercially minded people see mutual benefit – usually despite, not because of, their political masters.

Dave Christian

Southampton