In times of despair in politics perhaps we should turn to poetry. Matthew Arnold, writing in 1850, describes our present political situation well:

And we are here as on a darkling plain

Swept with confused alarms

of struggle and flight,

Where ignorant armies clash

by night.

John Donne, back in the 1600s, wrote No Man is an Island but he seems to anticipate the necessity to our UK economy of the 50 trade deals, negotiated by the EU for all its member states, including the UK, and perhaps understood the benefits of peace within Europe, shattered by two world wars last century and now at peace again.

No man is an island,

Entire of itself,

Every man is a piece of the

continent,

A part of the main.

If a clod be washed away

by the sea,

Europe is the less.

The UK has benefited enormously from free trade within the EU, which brings us our fresh tomatoes from Spain, our Airbus parts for wings made in Broughton, our nurses and doctors and dentists and barristas and crop pickers and architects from across Europe.

In Devon, investments in infrastructure such as Brixham’s fishing port and the North Devon link road. In Cornwall, billions of pounds of EU money has been invested in super-fast broadband; a state-of-the art university campus at Penryn; rail improvements; a possible spaceport at Newquay; and geothermal energy plans.

So, let us remain true to the EU and remain in the EU.

Howard Cotton

Bridgetown, Totnes