When will MPs start answering letters from constituents? – Yorkshire Post Letters

I SYMPATHISE with the thoughts of Jerry Diccox (The Yorkshire Post, March 27) on the struggles of getting MPs to respond to letters.

I, too, have had reason to write to my democratically elected Member of Parliament, Miriam Cates She is not my choice of MP but, nevertheless, she has been elected to represent Penistone and Stocksbridge (possibly the antics of the previous incumbent lent a helping hand in securing Ms Cates this seat?), the constituency of which I am part of.

I have written to her on numerous occasions regarding the detrimental effect that the wrong causation of death being appended to a death certificate, especially when Industrial Disease is present, to a grieving family.

Also the unfair share of the Mineworkers Pension Scheme generated surplus, filched by Government (who have not paid one penny into the so-called “guarantee” but taken £6.2bn out of the pension scheme since 1995) and a constituent who I represented successfully at a Medical Appeal Tribunal after she lost her husband to the effects of Industrial Disease against the Department of Work and Pensions.

Again Ms Cates was written to on behalf of her widowed constituent. Again, she ignored the correspondence. Why? In February the DWP owned up to their error but still the lady has not been recompensed by the DWP.

Are there other constituents who have met with the same attitude? I sincerely hope the “working tirelessly” cliché that is being trotted out in Ms Cates’s governmental circles is not simply empty rhetoric when so many local people’s jobs are at risk at Stocksbridge and neighbouring steelworks?

Sad reality of Brexit is here

From: Jas Olak, Vice Chair, Leeds for Europe.

GORDON Lawrence says he’s “a Brexit enthusiast” (The Yorkshire Post, April 21). No doubt.

But everything else in his letter I do doubt. He conjures up some glorious buccaneering fantasy for Brexit – as if its sad reality isn’t here already.

Jacob Rees-Mogg wanted 50 years to judge Brexit. Dominic Raab “a 10-year view”. Four months is enough: Brexit isn’t working.

There must be many people in the fishing industry who shared Mr Lawrence’s enthusiasm – accepting in good faith what Vote Leave campaigners such as Boris Johnson claimed. Now their livelihoods are being destroyed by Mr Johnson’s disastrous “Christmas gift”.

Mr Lawrence talks “EU red tape”. But how many companies would prefer that over genuine, now painfully real Brexit bureaucracy? Also, which “rarely pleasing” European Union laws did you object to, Mr Lawrence? Most Brexit enthusiasts draw a blank there.

We can’t wait for Rees-Mogg, Raab and Gordon Lawrence to catch up. We desperately need a better deal with our immediate neighbours, most important trading partners and closest allies. Single Market and Customs Union access isn’t full EU membership but is the kind of workable, mutually-beneficial relationship enjoyed by important neighbours and allies of the EU – such as Norway and Switzerland.

From: Stephen Duncan, Thorpe, Wakefield.

I NOTE with interest Lia Nici MP’s recent comments that those of us who are not proud to be British or of our flag should move to another country they prefer.

Does Ms Nici not realise the irony of her comments in that it would be far easier for us to move to at least 27 other countries were it not for the policies and attitudes of her Party?

I would be also interested to know where she stands on those of us who used to love the openness and inclusivity of our country, as best demonstrated by the 2012 London Olympics. and are now ashamed and embarrassed of what Ms Nici, her party and its supporters have made it become?