YP Letters: More to effective governance than Theresa May’s tactic of simply being ‘difficult’

THE quality of The Yorkshire Post letters page of February 6, led by Dr Peter Williams, was so daunting that I hesitated to add my own humble twopence worth. However I can’t help endorsing your correspondent’s remarks on the “obsessive character” of the Prime Minister.

Theresa May was prepared to endorse Brexit, which she had opposed, to become Prime Minister. Unlike David Cameron who was cavalier with both his career and his country’s future, Mrs May’s leadership has been characterised by determination to the exclusion of other considerations, as if compromise would be a sign of weakness. At the time, Kenneth Clarke’s observation that she was “a bloody difficult woman” appeared ambivalent. Perhaps he was mindful that there is more to effective governance than just sticking to one’s guns.

From: John Van der Gucht, Clayton Hall Road, Cross Hills.

I AM struck by the extreme level of vituperation, hatred even of mainly ‘Leavers’ in the letters page. In particular, the target has been Yvette Cooper (and her ex-MP husband). Her efforts to try and broker some form of deal in the Commons, which is deadlocked, is at least a positive contribution to the debate.

Is it because she is a woman that she is getting in the neck? She is the elected representative of a constituency that has suffered grievously from the regions industrial decline, plus ‘austerity policy’ imposed after the 2008 banking crisis, none of which can be directly laid at the EU’s door. In the meantime, the PM seems set on ‘running down the clock’, which is pure brinkmanship, and risks our immediate futures.

From: Robert Bottamley, Thorn Road, Hedon.

IT may be possible to assist European Council President Donald Tusk in his attempt to envisage a ‘special place in hell’ assigned for ‘those who promoted Brexit without even a sketch of a plan’. I suspect it would bear more than a passing resemblance to the EU (The Yorkshire Post, February 7).

From: Barrie Crowther, Walton, Wakefield.

SO actor Sir Patrick Stewart wants 14-year-olds to have the vote. The majority in this age group probably don’t even know we were in a war with Germany called the Second World War or the name of the man who led us through it. You need knowledge to make decisions. Perhaps raising the voting age to 20 would be a better idea.