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What has the EU ever done for us?

Rally to defend Brexit, London, March 2019. Photo Paul G E Smyth/shutterstock.com.

Europe is paying higher energy prices than the US or Canada. Energy use in Britain has fallen, and British businesses pay twice as much as their French counterparts. Yet the UK government, no matter the party, is more pro-EU than member states themselves. And the new energy secretary wants to outdo the Green Party agenda.

Brexit provided the opportunity to end the Common Fisheries Policy and give British fishermen the ability to fish in their waters. Instead, Starmer signed over our waters for an outrageous 12 years, in exchange for signing up to EU regulations for agriculture.

After Brexit, Britain was free of the restrictive EU approach to biotechnology, due largely to Green opposition. The result was a leap forward in precision breeding. The EU is partially catching up, but the Labour reset threatens Britain’s progress.

Fishermen lost the waters they were promised, and farmers are left to compete against subsidised European farmers. At the same time, the government tries to push farmers into exchanging green fields for solar panels, and threatens their land with inheritance taxes.

Many pieces of former EU legislation remain active on the UK statute book – more (up to 4,500 pieces) than have been substantially amended, replaced with domestic law or had their policy intent altered (about 1,600). Over 2,000 pieces have been scrapped entirely.

• Related article: Brexit 10 years on: the fight for independence

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