YP Letters: Are politicians up to job of life after Brexit?

YOUR Editorial (The Yorkshire Post, May 15) raised the issue of the mismanagement of the Rural Payments Agency and the problems caused to farmers.

It is important to remember that the incompetence of this Agency, which is meant to distribute £1.8bn annually to farmers, has resulted in at least £642m in penalty payments back to the EU since 2005.

If this continues after Brexit, at least we will be able to fine ourselves.

When considering the current standard of our career politicians, perhaps we should call it the House of Incompetents, and not Commons. One reason for the majority of our MPs wishing to remain tied to the EU could be the realisation that they will be unable to cope with the work involved when we leave.

From: John Van der Gucht, Cross Hills, near Keighley.

PAUL Morley (The Yorkshire Post, May 15) views Brexit through a haze of post-Second World War nostalgia when we still had an Empire and still ruled the waves. He would get on well with a guy in my local who exclaims ‘We voted to get out! Why aren’t we out?!’

No doubt both voted to leave so that ‘we’ could take back control. The trouble is who are ‘we’? In our imperfect representative democracy, surely that means Parliament would take back control on our behalf, unless Mr Morley envisages a totally new form of government.

The House of Lords is a revising chamber. Its role is to scrutinise new legislation. The more we discover about the Brexit process, the more scrutiny it requires.

From: Alan Chapman, Beck Lane, Bingley.

MY prophecy has developed from the day the Remain-voting Home Secretary was appointed as PM by the Conservative Party establishment. All subscribing Conservative Party members, who are mainly Leave supporters, were disenfranchised. I realised it was the start of a long-term plot to reverse the referendum result.

Mrs May’s “balanced” cabinet, equal Leave and Remain members, is set to force a deadlock that would permeate into the whole Parliament.

I predict the PM will say: “It was the will of the people that brought Parliament to this blockage, the only solution to resolve this is to put another referendum to the people to make the final decision.”

The Brexit side will lose, due to the death of a large number of elderly Leave voters, while an equal number of Remain teenagers, influenced by a left-wing education system, will have attained the voting age of 18.

As a long-term Leave campaigner, I expect the ultimate betrayal!

Courtesy is just the ticket

From: Sir Andrew Cook CBE, Champery, Switzerland.

IN January, an unhelpful ticket clerk at Leeds station took an inordinately long time to sell me a ticket to Manchester Airport, causing me to miss my train. While waiting for the next train, I discovered the ticket had been overpriced, but there was not time for me to return to the ticket office to rectify the situation.

I wrote to Northern Rail, the company in charge of Leeds station, complaining about this incident. I have just received a polite letter, perfectly written and correctly addressed, offering an unreserved apology and enclosing a cheque for the full price of the ticket.

Due credit is due to Northern Rail for realising the goodwill that such courtesies can generate.

Other, more ‘glitzy’ train operating companies would do well to follow their example and realise that customer goodwill comes more from the substance than the image.

From: ME Wright, Harrogate.

VERY good news to read that the North’s railway funding is now “marching in lockstep with Crossrail 2” (The Yorkshire Post, May 16).

It remains to be seen whether said “lockstep” will apply to tracks and wires.

May we take it that Chris Grayling’s Damascene conversion to bimodal (diesel-electric) traction will be applied to Crossrail 2, or am I being very silly?

From: Jarvis Browning, Main Stret, Fadmoor, York.

AT last they have done the sensible thing in not renewing the East Coast contract to Stagecoach and Virgin Rail.

Maybe the Transport Secretary should pay for this mistake, not the taxpayers?

Partners in life and love

From: Michael Ellison, Knapping Hill, Harrogate.

AS a teenager, I vowed that I would never live with a woman that I was not married to. Last month I celebrated 40 years of marriage to my wonderful wife Julia.

I am old enough to remember in the 1960s that an unmarried couple co-habiting were classed as ‘living in sin’, and an unmarried woman who gave birth was pilloried in society.

Thankfully attitudes have changed.

Despite my personal avowal, I am mystified why, in the 21st century, a heterosexual couple, who choose not to have a ‘formal’ wedding, are denied the opportunity to have their relationship legally recognised by having a civil partnership.

Mr and Misses

From: Mary Burnley, Idle.

I CHECKED the date – no it wasn’t April 1 – so perhaps it’s true.

An academic has spent hours counting the words spoken by the Mr Men and Little Miss characters and has found the male characters have about seven more words per book than the Little Misses. And it is labelled “sexism”. Can you believe it?