• IT is all very well to talk about problems with the EU, but how does giving up the UK’s voting membership of the EU help? (Brexit is a great idea on so many levels, November 7).

EU membership actually involves hundreds of legal treaties, which the UK took part in drafting, affecting most aspects of life in the UK.

Leave voters effectively rejected all these and were not presented with alternatives, so they couldn’t have known what they were voting for, only that they were voting against the status quo.

Though more belligerent than Theresa May, Boris Johnson has not presented alternatives to the hundreds of treaties either.

If his withdrawal agreement passes, the UK will only be at the foothills of enormous change, negotiating alternatives to the legal treaties of its membership from a weaker position.

Far from promoting a groundswell of support for socialism, the capacity of these changes to cause social unrest is already being exploited by the far right.

Size matters in a global economy. The “Big Three” global economies are the US, China and the EU. The EU has about 20 per cent of global GDP. This gives it great clout to negotiate good trade deals for its members.

The UK, with 3 per cent, is comparatively small, and at an obvious disadvantage on its own in trade negotiation.

The days of Empire are long gone, and the UK can’t be part of the US or China, but the UK can be a big part of the other big global player-the EU.

By leaving the EU, the UK offers a market of only 66 million, losing 85 per cent of its access to the single market. The UK’s loss is seven times greater than the loss to the EU.

This is what Michel Barnier meant when he said “Brexit cannot be a success”. Everyone loses. Including socialists.

CATHERINE MILLER, N19