‘It is high time we take back control and end stifling EU demands,’ says John Redwood
UK voters wanted out of the EU. Many of us were fed up with the huge bills to pay more money into the bureaucracy.
We had had enough of the endless power grab, with every year bringing an avalanche of new laws.
We watched as something sold to the UK in 1972 as a common market morphed into an evolving United States of Europe with a flag, its own currency, five Presidents, a strong executive government in the Commission, EU-directed military forces, a foreign policy and a Court which could strike down Acts of Parliament and fine our country.
The so-called single market was a massive legislative programme taking over vast swathes of policy from trade and business to the environment, transport, employment and migration.
Elsewhere in the EU we have left, there are new political currents wanting a halt to some of the trends.
The Germans are alarmed by the big build-up in EU debts since we left as the EU now borrows in its own name. Germany worries about how much of these bills she will have to pay.
Many countries worry about weak borders allowing millions into Europe posing issues of where they can find the homes and jobs they need. EU sceptic parties did well in the Netherlands in opposition to ultra-green policies reflecting EU requirements.
In Italy, there is now a right-of-centre populist government. In France, Le Pen is well ahead of Macron in the polls.
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The UK has already gained by escaping the increased demands for money and having to share the new bigger debts. We have also avoided another riot of expensive rules and regulations which hit small businesses, impede innovation and let the US greatly outperform Europe.
It is high time we now cut taxes and remove needless rules to exercise our freedoms from the stifling EU demands.
We should raise the VAT threshold from £85,000 to £250,000 now we are free to do so. Too many small businesses stop expanding to avoid all the hassle and cost of VAT registration.
We should restore our fishing grounds, cutting quotas for foreign boats. Why should we have to import our own fish from abroad when we could catch it and land it ourselves?
We should give more grants to grow our own food at home instead of money to wild our farms.
We should remove many of the product regulations like the one which made some UK hoovers illegal, allowing businesses and customers more product freedom.
After we joined the EEC our growth rate fell. It fell again after the 1992 completion of the single market. As the UK’s single market Minister at an important time for the project, I saw for myself how it damaged growth and new ideas. It was just a power grab, entrapping us in a legal minefield.