Is Brexit legacy of disunity now hindering virus fight?

FORTY years ago this summer, my best friend and I graduated from Leeds University.

We both enjoyed long careers in education, I, as a secondary teacher in Yorkshire, he as a philosophy lecturer in Frankfurt.

We speak regularly, comparing our two nation’s approaches to social and political matters. Recently we have much to consider on how the UK and Germany are managing this terrible virus.

Many of your correspondents have suggested we should cease carping about the record of our Government on Covid-19 and refrain also from international comparisons. Boris Johnson is, after all, ‘doing his best’ they argue.

Well, any government worth its salt should welcome constant scrutiny on such a seismic matter. Moreover, it will have to face brutal truths – that other nations have done much better than us, and that we have much to learn from them. Not least from Germany.

My old friend observed that almost all political discourse in the UK has descended to outright  civil war. From Brexit battles, we have passed to Covid conflict.

One major reason that Germany has outperformed us, by almost every measure, is that they are not cursed by this lack of consensus, nor do they dwell in a house that is so divided.

From: Dick Lindley, Altofts, Normanton.

I READ that the Eurocrat Michel Barnier is attempting to punish the British people’s desire for independence and is determined to ensure that trade with the EU is made as difficult as possible for UK businesses.

Perhaps he has forgotten the huge numbers of Mercedes, BMW and Renault cars which we purchase from the EU or the fancy French cheeses, not to mention the enormous volume of French wines.

It is amazing that the EU and its unelected bureaucrats are hoping to disadvantage British businesses, and the economy, by making it difficult for us to sell our goods into the European market place.

I wonder if this fellow understands that we shall reciprocate in equal measure, which would bring the EU manufacturers and their farmers to their knees very quickly.

A man in his position should know that we buy much more from the EU than they buy from us!

Apparently the EU are determined to make the British people suffer even if it involves damaging themselves more. It is a kind of nihilistic rage which is offensive and extraordinarily unwise for the EU.

From: James Kenny, Howlett Cross, Leeds.

IT’S Groundhog Day, as prophet of doom John Cole (The Yorkshire Post, May 21) resurfaces with yet another desperate cry for Brexit to be scrapped.

Apparently the Covid pandemic means it’s no longer viable.

How disrespectful and shameful that anyone would seek to exploit the gravity of a worldwide crisis to fuel his blind Europhile obsession.

He ends his piece with the words ‘I rest my case’. If only he meant it.

From: Paul Morley, Ribblesdale Estate, Long Preston, Skipton.

YOU’VE got to say this for John Cole, he will still be trying to reverse Brexit when they are screwing the coffin lid down.

However, if he is comparing electing to leave the European Union to his ‘elective surgery’, I’m sure he wouldn’t have been impressed if he’d had to wait over four years for it like we are having to do with Brexit.

From: PJ Blackshaw, Gomersal Lane, Cleckheaton.

COULD somebody, please, change John Cole’s record. It is becoming tediously repetitious. The vote didn’t go your way Mr Cole. Accept it, please, and shut up.

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James Mitchinson