Fishermen have been betrayed by Brexit and Jacob Rees-Mogg – Yorkshire Post Letters

I NEVER thought I’d agree with Theresa May but her comments on the fragility of democracy and a rules-based international order are spot on (The Yorkshire Post, January 14).

So are her views on the importance of remaining a united nation. It is bizarre that the Government EU withdrawal deal treats Northern Ireland as part of the single European Market with a customs border down the Irish Sea.

This is a constituent part of the UK sending MPs to Westminster. Scots who voted Remain wonder why they cannot be treated the same way.

It is grossly misleading for the Prime Minister to say there are no new non-tariff barriers to trade with Europe. Exporters, including the fishing industry, are now finding barriers. The Yorkshire Post has rightly highlighted deep concerns among fishermen who’ve been let down on quotas.

The much hyped deal is already looking like a shabby mess. With important areas like financial services still to be fully negotiated, I regret to say there will be worse to come.

From: Dai Woosnam, Scartho, Grimsby.

WHY are we still being fed nonsense about our UK fishing communities being given “£100m to rebuild our trawler fleet”?

Get real please. Try spreading that £100m from Fleetwood to Milford Haven to Bideford to Newlyn to Brixham to Plymouth to Hastings to Ramsgate to Lowestoft to Great Yarmouth to Grimsby to Hull to Bridlington to Whitby, to North Shields.

I won’t get started on the great fishing ports of Scotland (like Fraserburgh, Peterhead, and Shetland), and Kilkeel in Northern Ireland – and you will realise that this £100m is just pin-money.

Leicester City Football Club’s new training complex cost the same £100m that Boris Johnson thinks will revitalise the whole of our fishing towns. And footballer Neymar Jr cost over twice that sum. What an insult to our collective intelligence Boris sometimes is... and I speak as a proud Brexiteer. 

From: Dr Martin Hemingway, Foxhill Court, Leeds.

BILL Carmichael (The Yorkshire Post, January 15), like other Leave supporters, says that those of us who voted differently in 2016 should “swallow [our] disappointment, accept the result of a democratic vote, and work with [our] opponents”.

There is no democratic logic to this. Because I am on the losing side in a vote, I am not required to accept that the decision was right. Ask those on the losing side of a vote in any sports club or society!

I have voted in every general election since I came of age to do so in the 1970s. I have never voted Conservative or Liberal (Democrat).

I have never felt that because Labour (or Greens) did not win the election I had to accept the damage done to society and communities by Margaret Thatcher, by John Major, by David Cameron and Nick Clegg, by Theresa May and by Boris Johnson.

I am proud that in this country I had, and have, the democratic right to work for more constructive change.

From: Gordon Lawrence, Sheffield.

INSUFFICIENT credit has been given to Boris Johnson and the gruelling efforts of the David Frost team for negotiating, in my view, a remarkable coup in the face of all the pessimistic fears of a no deal outcome.

A strong body of sceptical, unforgiving, nit-picking, scaremongering opinion regards our situation as a plunge into the dark. But I see it as a walk into the light. There may be a few shadows, especially in the small print, but the way is illuminated with rays of relief and a new dawn.

For example, the industrious Liz Truss has negotiated 62 trade deals, valued at reportedly £900bn. These are countries outside the bureaucratic bloc which were impossible to entertain before, which speaks of new and desirable freedoms.

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