No-one blames EU for Fairtrade (From Lancaster And Morecambe Citizen)

No-one blames EU for Fairtrade

9:49am Wednesday 9th April 2008

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I MUST correct Bernard Brown (Letters, last week) as neither I nor UKIP, nor the speaker at our Morecambe conference, who explained how Fairtrade damages developing companies, blamed it on the European Union.

As for telling the US government to stop subsidising farmers, does anybody seriously think they would listen any more than they have to the millions who oppose the Iraq war?

One of the reasons I have opposed the EU, since it was the EEC that we joined, is because of the damage the Common Agricultural Policy does to developing countries.

I'm afraid that Fairtrade uses misleading messages, even its name is emotive, to take advantage of well meaning but misguided people. Free trade is what is necessary.

If we look at the front page of the Citizen of April 2, we see more smoke and mirrors from politicians.

It really is hypocritical of people from the Lib-Lab-Con to cry over Post Office closures when their own MEPs continued support of EU membership have brought about the directives that caused the closures.

Even more worrying is that, thanks to the European Parliament, the EU Postal Directive passed on January 31 means that from 2011 our postal service must be opened up to competition - and like so many services, could be foreign owned.

There are no longer any boundaries or frontiers between us and Europe. We are, in fact, virtually one nation. Just look at who recent immigration legislation will keep out - not a single citizen of an EU state but plenty of people whose countries have historic ties to the UK, such as India or Australia.

Gregg Beaman, UKIP.

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