Brexit trumps EU’s self-harming pettiness – Yorkshire Post Letters

I HOPE I can bring some comfort to your correspondent James Bovington. In his letter (The Yorkshire Post, January 1), he bemoans Brexit and lists several items which particularly sadden him. His fears, however, are unlikely to be realised.

I reached adulthood before we joined the Common Market/EU and therefore have first-hand knowledge of how things worked before then.

Mr Bovington need not worry about the future of British science. It was top notch for centuries before the EU was ever thought of and will remain so. Besides, science operates on a world-wide basis, not a continental one.

Travel for young people was easy – at least on this side of the Iron Curtain. I was one of a group of students who drove an old van from Leeds to Athens and back with little trouble.

Similarly, before we joined the EU, our linguistic students studied in the appropriate countries, our musicians played all over the world and Brits worked in just about every country. It could be that EU countries will show self-harming pettiness for a short period, but I am confident that sensible arrangements will soon be arrived at once the spotlight has moved on from these issues.

From: Peter Brown, Shadwell, Leeds.

THE Martin Luther King “free at last” quote referenced by Bill Carmichael (The Yorkshire Post, January 1) was taken from Dr King’s 1963 “I Have A Dream” speech about America’s issues with “the manacles of segregation ...discrimination” and aftermath of slavery. So its use in a column about the European Union was inappropriate.

If the EU is so awful, why is Boris Johnson’s 80-year-old father taking advantage of the fact his mother was French and applying for a French passport – and doing so only now, in his ninth decade?

Understandably, Stanley Johnson wants to take advantage of an unearned, luck-of-the-draw privilege to retain his own EU rights – and pass them onto his children and grandchildren.

It is a freedom now afforded to a privileged few. One example of how Boris Johnson, Brexit and cheerleaders such as Bill Carmichael are making us poorer – until we rejoin the European Union, of course.

Support The Yorkshire Post and become a subscriber today. Your subscription will help us to continue to bring quality news to the people of Yorkshire. In return, you’ll see fewer ads on site, get free access to our app and receive exclusive members-only offers. Click here to subscribe.