Rachael Maskell’s column for The Press (It is time to reset Britain’s political direction, July 25) contains a certain amount of hyperbole typical of such articles. But at its heart there is a serious contradiction.

Maskell highlights, quite rightly, that the devastating austerity measures instigated by the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition have been damaging to the economy and more importantly the wider population, especially the poor.

Yet Maskell’s paradoxical route out of this mire is to commit ourselves in an unquestioning, devotional way to the European Union (EU).

But the EU is the ideological embodiment of the austerity narrative Maskell claims to abhor. One only has to look at the extremely savage austerity measures the EU forced on Greece and Italy to see the real policies of the EU. The populist and right wing backlash in these, and other countries, comes as a direct result of the excessively harsh measures imposed by the EU.

In essence, given her cult-like commitment to the EU, under the false narrative that the EU equals progressive policies, Maskell shows she has no coherent alternative to present in tackling the current political and economic challenges.

Andrew Holt,

Vine Street, York