We are constantly being confronted in the news with horrendous global scenes, such as the Amazon rainforests on fire, wars in Yemen and elsewhere, and various other disasters where human beings are failing to treat the environment and each other compassionately and responsibly. Meanwhile, in this little corner of the world, a strange self-harming phenomenon is occurring, in which people are masochistically about to inflict upon themselves an entirely unnecessary political, economic and social catastrophe, commonly called Brexit.

Currently, the UK media are indoctrinating us into the idea that we are faced with a binary choice between (a) Brexit with a deal, or (b) Brexit without a deal. This is surely wrong, for we have a third choice, (c) no Brexit at all? In fact, if we choose (c), viz. to remain in the European Union, our standard of living and way of life will remain approximately unchanged, but if we choose either (a) or (b) we are destined for many years to come to have a drop in our standard of living, shortages of commodities, and a further decrease in the value of the pound coupled with high inflation; there will be international tensions and renewed troubles in Northern Ireland, in addition to the loss of shared sovereignty and friendship we currently enjoy with 27 other European countries; Scotland will strive for independence from England; there is likely to be more divisiveness, violence and hate crimes culminating in an increasingly authoritarian right-wing government, massively negative issues with regard to international trade and movement of workers, and a huge loss of credibility in the world. I am certainly not scaremongering, I wish I were, but simply stating what is very likely to happen, based on a logical consideration of the facts at hand.

It is therefore hard for me as a rational person to understand why our country would choose to go down this very risky path of leaving the European Union, especially when solidarity with our European partners is so mutually beneficial and necessary. Notwithstanding the 2016 referendum outcome, Brexit is certainly not worth the kind of devastating upheaval that is awaiting us around the corner in a post-Brexit Britain. The only responsible solution, therefore, is to revoke Article 50 and abandon Brexit now, before we have burned our bridges with our allies and partners in Europe.

If you are a Brexiter yourself reading this, and therefore don’t agree with me, I suggest, with respect, that you may have been misled into anti-EU sentiments by the subversive propaganda and disinformation that is so prevalent in some of the national populist press. The Monmouthshire Beacon, on the other hand, really is a local beacon of integrity in our dark world, and I am very grateful for that.

Dr A J Owen (Monmouth)