YP Letters: A Brexit admission that ruling elite has given up on democracy

From: Thomas Jefferson, Batty Lane, Howden, Goole.
Brexit continues to divide public opinion.Brexit continues to divide public opinion.
Brexit continues to divide public opinion.

THE gist of Lord Wallace’s article on Brexit (The Yorkshire Post, January 7) is that there is no point in leaving the EU because the days of national democracy are over, and real power now lies with international organisations.

National sovereignty is an illusion, so there’s no point in going through the pain of trying to achieve it, only to find it hasn’t made much difference. Let’s forget about Brexit and just let the Eurocrats get on with running our lives as they know what’s best for us.

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With these anti-democratic sentiments, Lord Wallace expresses the views of a party that cynically includes the word “Democrats” in its name. The very essence of democracy, that it should involve the participation of the voters in the governance of their lives is, to them, very last century.

Let’s just airbrush from our memories the problems caused by lack of democratic accountability of those welding power over the last hundred years and hope it doesn’t happen again. After all, everyone’s so much wiser now.

The steadying hand of democracy is no doubt irksome to the political elite, such as Lord Wallace, but to bypass it is surely a folly that is far greater than any short-term problems caused by re-establishing self-government.

From: Nick Martinek, Briarlyn Road, Huddersfield.

IN the run-up to the referendum, David Cameron made it clear that his renegotiations with the EU had freed the UK from “ever closer union”. That claim was repeated in the taxpayer funded-Remain propaganda booklet sent to every household: “The UK will not be part of further European political integration.” It came together with the recommendation to vote Remain.

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The UK has never been in the euro nor been part of the Schengen borderless agreement. Mr Cameron negotiated us out of “ever closer union”. The most fundamental pillar left was the EU’s Single Market. Inevitably that means by voting Leave we were voting to leave the Single Market. Even the Remain campaign agreed that before the vote.

Unwilling to accept democracy, the Remainers now want to overturn the referendum result by agitating for us to stay in the Single Market. They think they can con us into giving up our new-found liberty for their illusory promise of wealth. We will not accept the Remain side’s fake Leave, and it does appear that Theresa May is beginning to get that (The Yorkshire Post, January 9).