SIR – Owen Smith, MP for Pontypridd, is Jeremy Corbyn’s rival for the leadership of the party.  I would think that he would do well to avoid too much mention of “socialism”, particularly post-Brexit.  The electorate has spoken over the EU but socialism is scarcely what the country needs to advance us.  Prime Minister Theresa May deserves the country’s support in negotiating Brexit; she and her colleagues realise that the Leave vote was not merely a rejection of the EU but “a roar against the dispossession of globalisation”.

She has been compared to Margaret Thatcher, both were shaped by their Christian fathers – May’s an Anglican vicar, Thatcher’s a Methodist lay preacher – and both adopted a rigorous moral code.  Mrs Thatcher signed the Single European Act in 1986, extending free movement of goods, services, capital and people. As the EU expanded, the so-called “liberal imperative of growth” clashed with the “conservative imperative of order”. Net migration from Europe now stands at 184,000, a level regarded by PM May as unsustainable. Unlike some of her former colleagues she was a sincere believer in reducing the net migration total  (currently 333,000 ) towards “tens of thousands” a year.

Negative opinion about the EU, especially about its economic policy, is now more widespread in other countries than England.  Polls showed that disapproval of EU was as high in Germany and the Netherlands as in Britain and higher in France, Greece and Spain. Washington had put heavy pressure on London to apply to accede to the Treaty of Rome in 1961.  The  belief that it was the only cure for Britain’s ills became the orthodoxy; Britain was the “sinking Titanic” and “Europe” the lifeboat.

The Queen’s call for “deeper, cooler consideration” is welcomed.  I see no sinking ship –  on the contrary, having supported Brexit, I am most optimistic that Britain with its sovereignty regained will set the example of peaceful trade relations with the continent and with the rest of the world and possibly other member states will arrive at a similar conclusion.  

Wendy Hands

Upton-upon-Severn