YP Letters: Not a racist or a halfwit, but a proud Brexiteer

THOSE of us who voted to leave the EU in last year’s referendum have had a good deal of stick from those who voted to remain.

Present and past politicians (there are hundreds of them) from all the major parties, whose policies before June 2016 were firmly pro-EU, have been particularly keen to condemn us.

We Brexiteers are portrayed by Remainers as being racist halfwits. I am not a racist, indeed I am ashamed of our Government’s inadequate response to the plight of the poor souls who have fled the living hells in the Middle East and North Africa. Nor am I a halfwit. I take my inspiration from the American colonists of the late 18th century whose motto was “taxation without representation is tyranny”.

We UK taxpayers pay taxes to the EU, but are powerless to bring about reform of this oversized, overblown, bureaucratic and possibly corrupt entity via the ballot box.

And don’t tell me that my vote in elections to the European Parliament constitutes my representation.

I don’t know how MEPs pass on their time (mainly packing for their next move from Strasbourg to Brussels or vice versa, I wouldn’t be surprised) but what they don’t do is bring about long-overdue reform.

The June 2016 referendum gave us the only chance (apart from voting Ukip) to protest about this state of affairs.

I am proud to have been one of the majority who took that chance.

From: PJ Blackshaw, Cleckheaton.

ONCE again the Remoaners, like ME Wright (The Yorkshire Post, August 14), resort to insulting those who voted to leave the EU. How condescending to refer to ‘dear old grandad’. He also infers that before June 2016 the younger generation were wandering around in a state of unawareness.

Why are these people so arrogant that they feel they know better than those who had the foresight to vote to leave this corrupt and undemocratic union?

Yet again we have this whining for a second referendum.

Perhaps we should apply his theory of running a second referendum to every election. Then those who were too uninterested to get off their backsides and vote in the first one could be given a second chance to place a cross in their preferred box.

It would appear that those wishing to remain in the EU do not accept democracy. In that case, the EU is an ideal place for them.

However the United Kingdom is a democratic nation and we should accept the view of the majority.

First pass the post wins.

From: Hugh Rogers, Messingham Road, Ashby.

ME Wright (The Yorkshire Post, August 14) cannot possibly know that those who did not vote in the referendum were “predominately the nation’s future”. If this was true, then the outlook for this country is indeed bleak.

The fact is that while fewer than half those eligible wanted to leave the EU, even fewer than half voted to remain. Regarding the “will of the people” as only valid if you agree with the result is a curious view of democracy. As is neglecting to vote, which is a rejection of everything our forefathers fought so hard to preserve.

As for the much-vaunted wisdom of the young, the last general election demonstrated only too clearly that teenagers are as easily seduced by tub-thumping rhetoric, bad arithmetic and empty, baseless promises as the rest of us.

Scandal of NHS waste

From: Alan Chapman, Beck Lane, Bingley.

I THANK Chris Ramus for his letter of support (The Yorkshire Post, August 10) in which he details his personal experience of blatant wastage within the NHS, adding to my own letter (August 5). We both support the NHS and bless them for their medical prowess.

I am confident this newspaper could fill a double page spread with readers’ examples of NHS wastage of medical items.

I call upon The Yorkshire Post to launch a campaign to expose this financial scandal.

Politicians at all levels, especially on the left, constantly demand nobody interferes with the NHS sacred cow, that must be funded to eternity. It is time for the people to wake up, taxpayers’ money is being poured down the drain every hour of every day. When is the country going to come to its senses?

I doubt if anybody can quantify the constant loss of funds, is the wastage rate 40, 50 or 60 per cent? Even if NHS managers have any idea, they will never expose the truth.

I have realised for many years there is a distorted attitude prevalent among many public sector employees, it is not their money, so it does not matter what is squandered. Until this basic problem is addressed, the country will continue borrowing vast sums, adding to the escalating national debt.

From: John Appleyard, Firthcliffe Parade, Liversedge.

SHOCKING new figures show the deep damage done to the health service by Tory austerity.

Some 44 per cent of hospital trusts responding to Freedom of Information requests said they had turned away pregnant women due to lack of resources and the crisis appears to be intensifying.

Across England, hospitals said they had temporarily closed their maternity wards to new admissions 382 times last year. This is not good enough.

Illogical language

From: Elisabeth Baker, Leeds.

THE latest mangling of the English language is the current use of the illogical “between...to...” instead of the accurate “between... and...”. Can anyone explain why this change has occurred?