Why Trump supporters are more like Brexiteers than Remainers: Yorkshire Post Letters

BILL Carmichael (The Yorkshire Post, January 15) claims that there is a lot in common between the antics of the Trump supporters and Remainers. However, if one looks at the facts, they actually have much more in common with Brexiteers.

At the time of the 2016 EU Referendum and USA Presidential election, both groups claimed that the establishment was against them, but the electoral systems in both the USA and the UK were actually biased in their favour.

In the USA the electoral college systems favours the Republicans over the Democrats, which was why they were able to win to win the presidential elections in 2000 and 2016, despite the Democrat candidates getting more votes.

In the UK the terms of the 2016 referendum were dictated to David Cameron by the ERG, who demanded changing the originally planned question from a simple ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ to ‘Remain’ or ‘Leave’.

Prior to the 2016 Presidential Election, Donald Trump stated that he would only accept the result if he won, and there is little doubt that if he had lost to Hillary Clinton, he would have claimed the vote was rigged.

Likewise before the 2016 EU referendum, there were rumours on social media that the vote would be rigged in favour of Remain, and there is little doubt that if Remain had won, there would be numerous claims of this, and possibly even violent protests. In fact the vast majority of threats of violence have come from Brexiteers directed at those who suggested that there should be another vote or a confirmatory referendum.

From: Peter Brown, Shadwell, Leeds.

POOR old Bill Carmichael thinks the worst Brexit-related thing to happen in the last two weeks is confiscation of a lorry driver’s ham sandwich.

Seemingly he hasn’t noticed the growing chaos at our ports, threat to food supplies, risk to workers’ rights, a fishing industry in crisis, UK-EU deliveries and orders halted, red tape overwhelming firms, mounting UK companies’ costs, and opportunities disappearing for British music and less-privileged students to study abroad.

This is what Brexit with a limited deal cobbled together at the last minute and pushed through Parliament without proper scrutiny looks like – after just two weeks. Of course, Boris Johnson’s “a good outcome” No-Deal Brexit would have been an even greater disaster.

Something else Bill Carmichael appears not to have noticed is how ridiculous he looks linking demagogue Trump’s murderous American thugs with peaceful, legal and democratic British efforts to remain in and now rejoin the European Union.

From: Paul Thackray, St Matthews Way, Barnsley.

HOWEVER much Bill Carmichael had tongue in cheek when comparing Remainers with Donald Trump supporters, he cannot be allowed to get away with it.

I live in Barnsley and voted to remain in the EU, along with 48 out of every 100 who voted, and I am by no means one of Bill’s “entitled elite”.

The vote went against me and I have accepted that without claiming a fraudulent vote or having been incited to march on Westminster to wave around the Mace at the foot of the Speaker’s chair. It is an odious comparison to lump the likes of me with those Trump supporters intent on insurrection.

From: ME Wright, Harrogate.

DAVID Behrens’ adaptation “fooling enough of the people for enough of the time is more than sufficient” suggests that President Lincoln might have foreseen the not unconnected viruses of Donald Trump and Brexit (The Yorkshire Post, January 16). By way of assurance, we have had Jacob Rees-Mogg’s proclamation that, thanks to retrieval of sovereignty, the rotting fish on the docks are now completely British.

It is now almost five years since Nigel Farage’s Ukip, aided and abetted by right wing press and dodgy politicians, won the referendum game.

The long term futures of our children and grandchildren will be haunted by the insistence that long dead grandads claimed to know best. Will distant cries of “we won so there – stop moaning” really help?

From: Jas Olak, Press Officer, Leeds for Europe, Leeds.

AN inordinate amount of time at the end of Brexit negotiations was spent on fishing, on behalf of one of the few sectors broadly pro-Brexit and meant to benefit.

If even this sector cannot keep faith (The Yorkshire Post, January 16), then it underscores the view of much of British industry – Brexit is an economic catastrophe best reversed as soon as possible.

From: David Smith, Mirfield.

THE letter by Dr Oliver Sykes (The Yorkshire Post, January 15) is typical. As Bill Carmichael points out in the same edition, some Remainers just grasp at any straw to show Brexit was a mistake even when there really isn’t an issue.

From: Hilary Andrews, Nursery Lane, Leeds.

Would it be possible for the lorries carrying fish or lamb to be diverted to UK supermarkets if they look like being delayed at ports by a vengeful EU? It would be nice to enjoy a bit more of this expensive food for a few weeks until the people who normally have our supplies complain that they are missing them.

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