In-or-out vote needed on EU membership

I REFER to Tom Richmond’s column entitled “Those wishing to keep Britain in the EU should vote for Ukip” (Yorkshire Post, January 5).

I write as a former Conservative, now as a subscriber and long-time member of Ukip. This article is misleading because David Cameron chose to adopt the middle ground for the last election and to neglect basic Tory principles.

This resulted in the Conservatives failing to obtain an outright majority, as the Labour Party won 200 seats, despite the financial disaster of 11 years of Blair and Brown.

Tom Richmond’s article is misleading because it fails to point out that David Cameron did not win the last election and he has performed abysmally, so Labour will certainly gain a landslide victory, without the Ukip effect.

The present Conservative policy does not reflect the true Conservative position. The majority of voters, of all political persuasions, heartily disagree with the EU, seek stricter control of immigration and wish to stop mass overseas aid, except in exceptional circumstances.

David Cameron has promised an in-or-out referendum after the next election, which he will not win, irrespective of the Ukip influence.

Personally, I prefer Ukip to describe themselves as the UK Conservative Party, promising an immediate in-or-out referendum, strict immigration control and vast reduction of unnecessary overseas aid.

From: David Bowe, (former member of the European Parliament for Yorkshire and the Humber 1989-2004), Silverdale Mount, Guiseley.

SELDOM does a Prime Minister display such a lack of diplomatic common sense as David Cameron does when it comes to Europe.

In recent months he has managed to alienate and baffle in equal measure his European partners.

This time he has gone so far as to exclaim that he is “entitled” to threaten fellow EU member states. At the very moment that they are beginning the process of reform of the euro and the eurozone, it beggars belief that he has chosen to employ such arrogant behaviour. Mr Cameron has repeatedly said that the wellbeing of the eurozone is in the UK’s best interest. He says the eurozone needs reform if it is to ensure that wellbeing. But in the same breath he says he is prepared to block those reform efforts.

He then says that the UK’s contribution to this process will be limited to using it as an opportunity to “take back powers from Brussels” and to create a new relationship with the EU.

This strategy is doomed to fail. There is very little chance that the UK’s European partners will allow it to abandon its treaty commitments while retaining all the privileges of Single Market membership.

Before making his much awaited speech on Europe, he should read his history books. He must understand that threats, blackmail and the pursuit of naked self- interest belong to an era that the EU replaced long ago with supranational co-operation and consensus building. It is only by adopting this approach that he will secure the UK’s best interests in Europe.

From: David Quarrie, Lynden Way, Holgate, York.

OUR big “friends” from across the Atlantic are warning Prime Minister David Cameron not to rock the boat too rigorously with the European Union. They, unlike us, are carefully looking after number one.

America knows it cannot bully France and Germany, which is so immensely successful she does not need to court America, so the US now leans even harder on the UK to get what she wants via Britain. We should be given the referendum promised by all three major UK parties, and it should be a straightforward: “Do you wish this country to remain within the EU? Yes or No?”

Votes for new police role

From: David F Chambers, Sladeburn Drive, Northallerton.

THE introduction of directly-elected police and crime commissioners was inevitable. You can’t have chief constables throwing their weight about as they see fit.

Assuming we fully conform with the EU’s call for prisoners’ rights to vote, this leads to a further advance in democracy. The guests of Her Majesty will be able to vote for future commissioners and as the prison-voter turnout can be reckoned at about 98 per cent as against the 13 per cent of the law abiders, the successful candidate is likely to be the one with the villains’ best interests at heart.

The commissioners’ arrival coincides with another novelty, the Police and Crime Panel. Whether these bodies are intended to act as help or hindrance to the commissioners, I’m not sure, but I expect their role to include keeping a close eye on the latter.

Overall costs of the new service are officially described as extremely low, but need to be seen in the light of reports of a panellist throwing his weight about and calls for a new body to be known as HM Inspectorate of Police and Crime Panels.