YP Letters: Anti-marketeer Powell could be called the first '˜Brexiteer'

ENOCH Powell may have been many things to many men but I would not have expected him to be prescient when addressing Conservatives at a meeting in Rugeley, Staffs, 45 years ago.

In December 1972, he stressed that the public hold power on the EEC when he urged the British people to face the Government with a “continuous referendum” on Common Market membership by asserting their attitude to EEC laws.

“There can rarely have been a time when the electorate had so much power to shape events as they can have during the next two years,” he said. Can you believe he was an anti-Marketeer and probably the first ‘Brexiteer’?

From: Mrs PZ Frankland, Hull Road, Dunnington, York.

I FIND the remarks of the new Country Land and Business Association president patronising, high handed, and insulting. I have been a member for 53 years. Tim Breitmeyer says “we won’t have the luxury of carrying on as we are”. What luxury? The last five years proves this. Ask any bank manager and accountant, they paint a poor picture of our finances. Our outgoings have never been so high. We cannot farm with our hands tied. Our incomings do not allow us to waste on chemicals etc. His statements are full of contradictions too. Does he think we are unaware of Brexit’s consequences? What puzzles me is why did so many farmers voted “out” at the referendum? I am very disappointed by his attitude.

From: Andrew Mercer, Guiseley.

LIKE the Northern Ireland peace process which required John Major, and then Tony Blair, to sign off each and every decision, the same is true of Brexit – only Theresa May is in a position to take decisions on behalf of the Government and the country.

It’s why she needs a strong number two to take charge of domestic policy, just as Winston Churchill relied upon Clement Attlee during the war. A Northern Powerhouse Minister in the Cabinet would give more focus to the social mobility agenda. If these things are obvious to onlookers, why is the Government so blind to common sense?

From: Henry Cobden, Ilkley.

Leave were quick to accuse Theresa May of selling out to the EU over Brexit. Don’t they realise the PM has a duty to the whole country – and not just the 52 per cent who backed Leave. Mrs May is trying to secure what a majority of people want – a pragmatic deal. Give her a break.