My letter from Nigel Farage

I wrote to my MEP Nigel Farage requesting a financial assessment of the benefits of Brexit.

I was expecting a mathematical answer but was astonished to receive a reply blaming those bloody Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle:

'May I suggest some general reading for you: Hobbes, Locke, Von Mises, Hayek, Fukuyama. The EU is based on the philosophy of Plato rather than Aristotle – that's why continental Europe keeps descending into tyranny whilst the UK escapes – we have done so again in Brexit and the EU's tyranny is for example exposed in Greece.

'Democracy is the real Brexit prize and from it flows a stable political system, the rule of law and sustained economic prosperity. Change of course always involves some disruption, and there is a short-term cost to that, but the long-term gains from the above are priceless. The mistake was joining the EU project in the first place – that is where responsibility for the costs involved in leaving should fall.'

Who knew that philosophers were to blame for our current business uncertainties? I imagine Mick Jagger would have said 'you Kant always get what you want'.

Peter Cook, Kent

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