YP Letters: Real EU issue is the question of sovereignty

WHATEVER the outcome of Parliamentary deliberation over Brexit, I believe we should think long and hard over the prospect of remaining in the EU.

According to recently released archive papers, we find that Winston Churchill was in favour of a federated Europe but he suggested the federation should be between Germany and France.

He was quite clear in stating that Britain should form no part of it. Indeed, he felt that Britain should be forming a stronger trading alliance with key commonwealth countries and the USA.

I am puzzled why many Remainers appear to be fixated on trading arrangements with the EU. When are we going to see a strategy for global growth?

The World Bank recently announced that 85 per cent of world trade takes place outside the EU. Any businessman will tell you that the 80/20 rule makes absolute sense.

Our primary target for trade deals should be outside the EU where the bulk of opportunity exists.

Our strength lies both in the ability and capacity of UK plc and in our strong links with the commonwealth and the US.

It has become clear that our MPs are in a conflict of interest. Some of them view the EU as a gold-plated job for life. It has become a home for failed politicians. No wonder politicians are fighting each other to find ways of securing future jobs.

It all boils down in the end to the question of sovereignty. Who owns the UK?

From: David Denton, Ryedale.

THE increased television coverage of Westminster during Brexit has drawn our attention to the bad behaviour of our politicians during, what are supposed to be, serious debates.

It has also pointed out that 25 per cent of the egocentric posturing members have, in a democratic society, have a questionable right to be there in the first place, as the majority of those who voted in the 2017 election did not wish that person to represent the constituency in the Houses of Parliament.

At the most extreme, one MP arrived in London having achieved less than 30 per cent of the votes cast in their constituency. It therefore has to be that these parliamentarians, who are at present shaping the destiny of the nation, are only expressing their own thoughts, as they do not carry to Westminster the locally voted constituency support.

We, in the UK, seem, at present, to be living in a very strange democracy.

From: Tim Hunter, Farfield Avenue, Knaresborough.

ON the face of it, it’s difficult to sympathise with the European Research Group (ERG) of Conservative MPs and their mutinous behaviour.

By inflicting defeat on Theresa May’s flagship Brexit policy, they have left the Government hanging by a thread, and considerably jeopardised Brexit. As a result of their actions, it is now much more likely that we’ll end up with an unacceptably diluted form of Brexit or, possibly, no Brexit at all. How is that better than Theresa May’s deal?

From: Thomas W Jefferson, Batty Lane, Howden, Goole.

THE issue of a further Brexit referendum still persists, but its outcome would be predictable well in advance of it occurring.

Before it could be held, we would require an extension of our Article 50 notice period and this would mean we would have to fight the EU elections which are due to take place in four months, probably well before a referendum could be organised.

These would require all parties to set out their positions on Brexit and would be like a general election and referendum all-in-one.

Ukip won the 2014 elections and now that Nigel Farage has committed to returning to the political fray, with a new Brexit party, the other parties will be shaking in their shoes at the prospect of the drubbing they would surely receive for having failed to understand, and implement, the results of the 2016 referendum.

From: Robert Bottamley, Thorn Road, Hedon.

IF nothing else can be said for John Cole’s arguments against leaving the EU, they certainly can be relied on (The Yorkshire Post, January 24).

Now, he explains that the 2016 referendum is invalid because it is ‘‘past its sell-by date’’.

And doubtless, when the result of the ballot was delivered, Mr Cole would have agreed unhesitatingly that departure from the EU couldn’t possibly happen immediately – in fact, 
not for at least two or three years?

Your correspondent’s position has, I submit, been transparently clear for some considerable time. Manifestly, he doesn’t believe in any kind of a democratic vote.

Mr Cole’s preferred way of reaching a decision would be to toss a coin into the air and call: “Heads I win – tails you lose!’’

From: Henry Cobden, Ilkley.

CAN anyone name a politician who could do a better a job than Theresa May with the hand that she has been dealt over Brexit? I can’t. Also she’s called Jacob Rees-Mogg’s bluff, a no-deal Brexit is now a non-starter.

Latin is still alive and well

From: ME Wright, Harrogate.

IT was good to read that, at an age when enquiring minds are at their most receptive, Latin has been successfully introduced at Sheffield’s Arbourthorne Primary School (The Yorkshire Post, January 22). Despite crossword compilers’ repeated “dead language” clues,

Latin is a vital main ingredient in English and other European languages.

If our more ardent Brexiteers manage to drag us back far enough, it might well become the language of necessity, rather than choice.