Letter to the Editor - Brexit

I choose an article called “The real danger of Brexit” from The Economist printed on February 27^th, 2016. The link to the article is http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21693584-leaving-eu-would-hurt-britainand-would-also-deal-terrible-blow-west-real-danger.

The article talks about the reasons why Britain wants to leave the EU, how that could harm the global economy in addition to Britain’s economy, and how it could break up the United Kingdom itself. Some British think that the EU is holding Britain back and that a break from the EU could allow Britain to be sovereign again. One hope is that this would allow them to control their immigration. The article says that although Britain would be sovereign, it would be much less powerful without the EU. A Brexit would cause the EU to weaken as well, disrupting western powers in the global economy. Furthermore the article says that the Brexit could cause Scotland and Northern Ireland to leave the UK. It says Scotland would leave because they are looking for any reason to leave and that Northern Ireland would leave because their peace with Britain has relied heavily on their membership with the EU.

A letter to the editor was written by Alastair Cameron, the director of Scotland in Union. The link to the letter is http://www.economist.com/news/letters/21694978-letters-editor.

The letter argues that the articles comment “Scotland…is again agitating for a divorce” is untrue. Cameron states that only some people in Scotland are agitating, primarily the nationalists. Polls show that only 10% want a referendum to be a priority. Cameron argues that Scotland depends on the rest of the UK for trade much more than it depends on the EU so the Brexit would not cause them to leave. If anything it would want them to stay in UK because now they need the trade with the UK even more than before.

I think this letter to the editor was very well put together and makes a stronger argument for Scotland staying in the UK than the article makes for Scotland leaving the UK.