Why EU referendum result is three years out-of-date as Britain shifts to Remain – Yorkshire Post Letters
ROBERT Bottamley (The Yorkshire Post, September 14) is critical of my reasoning that the Government is taking note of only 17.4 million people voting to leave.
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Hide AdHe is correct in stating that the Government doesn’t count the 39.3 million voting against, not voting and not being able to vote.
My point, backed up with much current thinking, not least by David Cameron’s comments on the dodgy statistics provided by Boris Johnson and Michael Gove in the run up to the referendum, is that the recent view of the country has shifted more to “Remain”.
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Hide AdUsing three-year-old statistics is not a sensible way of running this country.It seems more and more clear that governments should “govern” and not hope that a referendum, badly organised, should change the course of history.
From: Nick Martinek, Briarlyn Road, Huddersfield.
IN a democracy, sovereignty resides with the people – not Parliament. Our representatives in Parliament are not delegates and may use their judgement in most cases. But in the specific case of the 2016 national Referendum, set up by Parliament itself, with a government distributed booklet containing the promise to implement what the people chose, MPs put themselves in the position of being merely the executors of the people’s decision.
Except for this dishonourable Remain Parliament, of course, which discards our Leave vote, but would not have discarded a Remain vote. The self-serving Remain MPs failed to warn the electorate that one of the two options in the 2016 Referendum would not be allowed. That is both corrupt and immoral. It is far worse than the expenses scandal.
From: Tony Armitage, Fulwith Road, Harrogate.
THE recent vocal abuse aimed at Boris Johnson by the public is both contemptible and counterproductive to reasoned debate. In a meeting in South Yorkshire, a disruptive member of the public is reported to have been forcibly removed to allow the political debate to continue (The Yorkshire Post, September 14). The shameful behaviour of politicians in the House of Commons encourages hecklers in public and the sooner a principled Speaker is appointed to impartially manage order in the House of Commons, including the removal of hecklers, the better.
From: Bob Swallow, Townhead Avenue, Settle.
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Hide AdBILL Carmichael (The Yorkshire Post, September 13) mirrors my views on the present farcical Parliamentary situation. Here we have several factions with no cohesive policy of their own hell bent on achieving one thing. Remaining in the EU.
Now I have no quarrel with the populace of the countries within the EU. My quarrel is with its politicians leading an organisation with two ‘head offices’ producing accounts which have not passed muster for many years.
Food brands could do more
From: Aled Jones, Southcliffe Road, Bridlington.
IT is unacceptable that McDonald’s, KFC, and Burger King are irresponsibly standing by while the beautiful Amazon goes up in flames so that more land can be used to sell cattle and soya for profit. Amazon rain forests are literally the lungs of the planet. If they are turned into the world’s largest cattle ranch and soya farm, it will cause more irreversible damage to our already fragile planet.
The world’s biggest food brands have the power and influence to take a stand against the relentless greed of the Brazilian government. What in God’s merciful name are they waiting for? In short, either we have the total courage of our convictions or everything that we know and care about will be lost.
Sports stars lived next door
From: Brian H Sheridan, Lodge Moor, Sheffield.
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Hide AdDAVID Behrens recalls a “lost age of sport” where “sportsmen and women were not rock stars but people who lived down the road” (The Yorkshire Post, September 14).
I am old enough to remember a time when professional footballers went to the match on the same bus as the fans and earned similar wages to the bus driver.
The abolition of the maximum wage around 1960 was the inevitable recognition that star footballers were showbiz personalities. Hitherto, academically able boys had been discouraged from going into professional football, resulting in footballers unfairly being branded intellectually challenged.
A school friend of mine was sought after by several clubs before going to Oxford (University, not United). Knowing him, in this day and age, he would certainly have given football a whirl.
A downer on Downton
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Hide AdFrom: Coun Tim Mickleburgh (Lab), Boulevard Avenue, Grimsby.
UNLIKE Jayne Dowle (The Yorkshire Post, September 12), I don’t welcome the appearance of Downton Abbey on the big screen. Far from allowing us to wallow in a bit of escapism during this time of political turmoil, Downton just isn’t welcome when the real life upper classes educated at Eton are running the show.
I admit I liked the original Upstairs Downstairs.
But that was created by two people with a downstairs background, unlike Downton whose creator was a Tory peer. So if want to forget today’s realities I’d rather take in one of Disney’s endless live action remakes.