Letters: A reunion would protect us from bullying

If proof were ever needed that Trump is totally deranged, the tariffs provide it. The hit to the UK economy is unlikely to be anywhere near the 4% hit we take from being outside the single market and customs union, so those claiming the lower tariff on the UK as a Brexit win are deluding themselves.

I sense a growing movement across most of Europe only to trade with the US if absolutely necessary, and the trend towards internal EU trade will only be boosted by Trump’s lunacy. If only we were part of that. Many people don’t seem to realise that there are further significant gains to be made by further development of the single market.

Meanwhile, don’t knowingly buy anything American until the lunatics have been booed off the stage. Hundreds of millions of small decisions can be more effective than major moves by governments. Whatever else you do, don’t buy a Tesla.
Phil Green

I’m not an economist, as a quick glance at my bank account would prove, so don’t begin to really understand all the tariff nonsense (probably a bit like Trump). But I really don’t want our government sucking up to the US if it is at all possible – things may be bad, but integrity is sadly underrated.

I’ve always been opposed to a US trade deal because of health insurers and questionable food production; now I’m totally against. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the whole world could all give the finger to Trump?
Steve Buch

Jonty Bloom was spot-on in “Will Trump accidentally trigger a European boom?” The EU must use this tariff crisis to change in the ways he suggests.

This is no small task, especially as EU countries are looking at each other and wondering: which of you will be far right populist in a few years’ time? And should country X turn autocratic, how tied to it should we be?

To help with this, perhaps this is the time to make the president of the European Council a publicly elected post. This would leave the EU with two properly elected offices – the Parliament, and the Council president. The Commission would (and should) remain an appointed body of experts.

Whatever reforms the EU makes, I hope they emphasise one thing above all: that citizenship of Europe matters – that it means something important to each of us. 
RSP Zatzen

RIP Pax Americana, 1945-2025. It is with sadness that we must accept the death of the “leader of the free world” and work with our free, democratic allies in Europe and the Commonwealth to rebuild a new global order, safe for aid and trade.
Anthony Thacker 
Hinckley, Leicestershire 

They say history repeats itself. Sadly, Trump does not think before he opens his mouth. He does not understand economics. He fails to consider the consequences of his actions – a repeat of the Wall Street crash in October 1929 that wiped 40% off the value of shares and was followed by the Great Depression of the 1930s.

As Jonty Bloom argues, Trump’s tariffs could lead to European retaliation and a boom in a vibrant European economy. If Britain has the good sense to align itself with Europe, we too could experience economic expansion.
David Hogg 
Bristol

Am I alone in thinking that Trump’s tariffs were concocted in the White Horse?
Kev Pateman 

After 100 days of Trump it’s worth totting up his scorecard: 

An immediate end to the war in Gaza? 0/10, Israel still bombing civilians.

An immediate end to the war in Ukraine? Minus 5/10 for appeasing Vladimir Putin.

Massive gains for US companies?  0/10, trillions wiped off stocks.

Massive gains for the American people? 0/10, things are about to get much more expensive.

However, it’s all going brilliantly according to Trump. Looks as though it’s as big a disaster as Brexit, and in golfing terms, he’s 8 over after 4 holes.
Rex Nesbit 

Forward-looking, self-respecting nations are moving with purpose and energy to make new global alliances, recognising that the world economic order has shifted – in the way tectonic plates shift before tsunamis. Not so the UK Labour government. 

Just as Labour has swept the disaster of Brexit under the ever lumpier political carpet, so it is now trying to do the same with Trump’s tariffs.

Maybe Keir Starmer believes that his grovelling to Trump in the White House is why the UK “only” faces 10% tariffs. Lucky us. 

In fact it’s because we have a relatively equivalent trading relationship with the US. So, we’ve only got the same level of tariffs as the uninhabited Heard and McDonald penguin islands in the Antarctic.

From where I’m standing, the penguins have far more credibility than Sir Keir. 
Amanda Baker 
Edinburgh, Scotland

A Brexit truth
Re: Alastair Campbell’s idea of an Alliance of Frictionless Trade Associates (Diary, TNE #430) mentions that this could be accomplished without the need to “reopen all the divisions of Brexit”. This is a phrase that frustrates me whenever it is used.

The opinion polls consistently show a majority in favour of rejoining – at the very least – the single market and customs union, with only a minority in favour of staying out.

The chaos and division caused by Brexit came from Leave’s unwillingness and inability to frame what Brexit would look like. A referendum on rejoining the EU would not be a re-run of 2016. People know what it is like to be outside the EU, and most don’t like it.

That is the truth which Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves have to face if they truly care about this country. It is a truth from which they can run, but they cannot hide.
Mark Grahame

I wish Alastair Campbell good luck in getting his Irish passport (Diary, TNE #430). It was one of the happiest days in my life when I received mine, about four years ago. To be an EU citizen once again went a long way towards healing the deep pain of Brexit for me. 

If I end up becoming Taoiseach, through some unlikely confluence of events, I will make it a top priority to grant you citizenship.
Martin Treacy

I’m a citizen of Northern Ireland and recently reminded someone who was moaning about the flaws in the Good Friday Agreement (there are a few) that without it we could be like the Middle East. They once had a peace deal like us, and it was scuppered.

I have let my British passport expire as it’s pointless having one post-Brexit. My Irish passport means I can travel across Europe freely.

Reading Alastair’s column, I’m also intrigued about how an Irish audience felt about somebody who was at the heart of the British government playing an Irish famine song on his bagpipes. It’s a beautiful melody, but the words are tremendously sad and remind us of a horrible period in Ireland’s history. Thankfully, we are in a better place now.
Hugh Marcus

The indefensible
Re: Nigel Farage’s defence of Marine Le Pen (Lie of the Week, TNE #430). Le Pen and her acolytes stole from the public purse. She should not be given control of the purse strings. And, of course, even in the UK recently convicted criminals are not allowed to run for elected office.
Thomas Landon

Gender imbalance
Nigel Warburton speaks of Ernst Gombrich’s “curiosity about everything” (Everyday Philosophy, TNE #430). This was conspicuously absent when Gombrich failed to mention a single female artist in his grandly titled The Story of Art.
Mary Fletcher 
St Ives, Cornwall

Wellybeing
Thanks once again to Peter Trudgill for an erudite and entertaining excursion into etymology, this time on the wellington boot (TNE #430).

This species of footwear is known (or so I’m told) in parts of Canada as écrase-mardes (shit-crushers).
Tim Saunders 
Gabalfa, Caerdydd

Bloody food
“The barbarians of Italy’s far south” (Carousel, TNE #430) was a weirdly negative article about a basic food. In the north of England you can buy black pudding (offal, fat and blood). In Sweden a similar but slightly sweeter dish, blood pudding. In Andorra recently my hotel served a blood sausage. Now this article tells me Italy has many similar products, as I’m sure most countries have.

Why should eating offal and blood go against “the progress we’ve made and the achievements of human civilisation”? Why is it a “barbarian” way of eating, a “gruesome tradition”?

I have full respect for vegetarians and vegans, but this article seems to suggest that killing and eating some parts of the animal is fine but that it is uncivilised to eat other parts.
Keith Bryant

I’m sure I cannot be the only reader appalled by the Carousel article “Barbarians of the far south”.

Having read the graphic description of the slaughter of a piglet, I couldn’t believe you were publishing this as a “foodie” article. I would expect any correspondent with an ounce of decency to have walked out immediately, and perhaps submitted an article questioning why a civilised European country would allow such disregard for animal suffering.

Silvia Marchetti “kindly declined” a slice of the tortured animal. Surely anger would have been more apt? 
Richard Barnett

BELOW THE LINE
Comments, conversation and correspondence from our online subscribers 

Re: Dilettante on Rachel Reeves’s freebies (TNE #430). MPs should be squeaky clean. They should never take freebies because whatever they want to call it, it’s a bribe. 

MPs work for us and should always have our best interests at heart. Once you take the freebies, it’s a signal that you will favour the giver.
Faith Bowman

I take Marie Le Conte’s point that the taking of freebies is a different ball game in an environment where it is the norm rather than the exception. But in the case of Rachel Reeves, this was an extraordinary own goal. Marie is correct – once accepted, freebies corrode one’s principles, and trust in politics becomes eroded, with voters concluding “they are only in it for themselves”. This is tragic. 
Judith A Daniels

Re: Critical Mass on RFK Jr’s threat to cancer vaccines (TNE #430). My late father was cured of malignant melanoma by what was at the time groundbreaking immunotherapy cancer treatment. Christie Hospital, you are amazing. As for RFK Jr and his ilk, forgive my language, but they are complete dickheads. Maybe one benefit is that wonderful researchers from the US now come to Europe to continue their amazing work.
Christopher Harrison

Re: Rats in a Sack on the whataboutery of Daniel Hannan, TV reviewer (TNE #430). Anyone who can watch Adolescence and make such comments, completely missing the powerful messages sent and incredibly moving performances, must be totally devoid of normal human feelings.
Andy Wright

A brilliant line in Rats in a Sack –  “walking midlife crisis, Elon Musk”. Love it, and so true!
Margaret Rickleton

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