Sir, – I read your headline "'I'm packing my bags today': The Irish leaving Brexit Britain" (August 19th) with some alarm, fearing scenes of Irish people fleeing my country pursued by marauding gangs of pitchfork-waving, swivel-eyed Brexit loons.
Reading the ensuing article painted a different picture – only one of the 11 people featured cited Brexit as a reason for leaving Britain. A couple blamed “the relentless pace and incredibly competitive culture”, three others reckoned they may return home at some stage in the future, four others were happy, optimistic and positive about life in the UK, and a British citizen living in Ireland said he wasn’t going home!
I do find The Irish Times's unrelenting campaign to create an anti-Brexit narrative dispiriting. Britain has always provided a warm welcome to Irish immigrants – in much the same way as I, as a Brit, have been welcomed here – and who knows how many Irish citizens eligible to vote in the Brexit referendum chose Leave ?
Project Fear is now thoroughly discredited. Britain’s latest unemployment rate is at a 42-year low, manufacturing orders are at their highest level since August 1988, exports are up 10 per cent year-on-year, and as for a brain-drain from the City of London, a number of European banks, including Deutsche Bank and ING, have expanded their operations there since the referendum.
I understand that The Irish Times does not like Brexit, but surely some balance wouldn't go amiss? – Yours, etc,
KEN ANDREW,
Cobh,
Co Cork.