Readers' letters: Rees-Mogg is living in a Brexit fantasy world

It was not unexpected to note Jacob Rees-Mogg pontificating that there is little evidence that Brexit has damaged UK trade.

The delusions of the government's new Brexit opportunities minister know no bounds and fly in the overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

Last week, Westminster’s Public Accounts Committee said trade had been "suppressed" since the UK cut formal trade ties in January 2021, due a combination of Brexit, Covid and global economic problems.

The MPs said it was not possible to separate out the precise impact of each factor, but it was "clear" that Brexit had had an impact, with businesses experiencing additional paperwork and border checks when exporting products to EU countries.

The independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), which comes up with economic forecasts for the government, said at the time of the Budget in October that both imports and exports with the EU had been hit by Brexit and that both were on track to end up 15 per cent lower as a result of the UK leaving the EU.

It pointed to research from the Centre for European Reform, which concluded that in October 2021 the UK's trade in goods with the EU had been 15.7 per cent, or £12.6bn lower, than it would have been without Brexit.

Mr Rees-Mogg may continue to live in a fantasy world where all in the garden is rosy, but in the real world British businesses are being forced to face up to the harsh realities of Brexit.

Alex Orr, Edinburgh.

Price for government incompetence is high

In 2021 the UK Energy Minister, Anne-Marie Trevelyan, said "The Contracts for Difference [CfD] scheme has helped the UK become a world leader in clean electricity generation and lowered prices for consumers."

CfD are intended to incentivise investment in renewable energy schemes. This scheme has been in operation from 2015 and resulted in a steady increase in electricity prices over the past six years.

We now await a significant price increase in April 2022 which could be mitigated if the government cancelled the taxes on the government environmental levy and the carbon tax on gas generators which amounts to 17 per cent of the electricity price.

CfD do not apply to nuclear plants and the government's failure to start building the planned 19 GW of installed nuclear capacity over the past 10 years has put our electricity sector at serious risk of not meeting security of supply in the next 20 years and will almost certainly result in Great Britain failing to meet UK's net zero target by 2050.

It is generally accepted that renewable generation on its own cannot meet demand but the government are incapable of planning and commissioning the necessary generating capacity and keeping the price of electricity as low as possible in the national interest. This will result in the consumer paying the price for the government's incompetence.

C Scott, Edinburgh.

History lesson?

Green MSP Ross Greer says Scots should be educated in how to spot fake news and misinformation ahead of the next Independence referendum. I claim first spot!

I just saw his podcast in which he ludicrously cites the US civil war, when Union states paid the armed forces pensions of the states that attempted to breakaway.

That’s because they rejoined the Union. If they had succeeded in splitting the union what then? The north would have footed the bill for the south? More misinformation?

Andrew Kemp, Rosyth.

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