YP Letters: Brexit referendum vote was far from being '˜substantial majority'

I AM tired of the intellectual dishonesty of the Brexit Brigade who repeatedly assert that “the country voted clearly to leave the EU”.

To remind readers, the vote was 52-48 per cent – more a case of very fine margins rather than a substantial majority.

Moreover, the electorate excluded 16 and 17-year-olds, EU nationals working in the UK and paying tax here and ex-pats. All three of these categories were allowed a vote in the Scottish independence referendum, but not on June 23 last year. Why the inconsistency? The numbers excluded exceeded the size of the “Leave” winning margin.

Finally, the referendum was clearly marked by Parliament as being advisory only, meaning the Government did not have to pick up and run with the result.

From: Nick Martinek, Briarlyn Road, Huddersfield.

IT is in the interests of the UK to leave the EU entirely, but it is also in our interests to help break up the EU (Bill Carmichael, The Yorkshire Post, February 24).

A continental power dominated by Germany is a worse prospect than Germany on its own. And at least after a managed dismantling of the EU, Germany won’t be able to hide behind the undervalued (in their case) euro currency.

As the new US President, Donald Trump, appears to intimate, the world has had enough of modern day mercantilism, whether by Germany as part of the EU, or indeed others. The EU has taken our money, and impoverished the southern European nations, to fund this profligate distortion.

Only the Lib Dems and a few Remainers want it to continue.

From: A Hague, Bellbrooke Grove, Harehill, Leeds.

WAS Tony Blair paid by the EU to ask people to rise up against Brexit? It’s his fault that Jeremy Corbyn is not getting the support needed to lead Labour to victory at the next election. Mr Blair should start a new party of his own and see just how far he gets, that’s if he has the guts needed to have any chance of success.

From: Mike Bytheway, Oakwood, Leeds.

I WONDER how many of our MPs read the Lisbon Treaty in 2009 before voting in favour of setting it into law? I believe the Treaty is in excess of 3,000 pages and went through Parliament in about two weeks. It is my opinion that the surrender of sovereignty without a good fight has exhausted the goodwill of many people.