Poor will get poorer if we leave the EU - Yorkshire Post Letters

From: Vicky Seddon, Westbourne Road, Sheffield.
How will Brexit be reconciled? Readers of The Yorkshire Post continue to have their say.How will Brexit be reconciled? Readers of The Yorkshire Post continue to have their say.
How will Brexit be reconciled? Readers of The Yorkshire Post continue to have their say.

Barnsley Council leader Sir Steve Houghton makes important and valid points about the dilemmas that the Brexit referendum and subsequent negotiations have created (The Yorkshire Post, June 4).

Certainly the social and economic divisions that influenced the Leave vote need to be addressed, and the underlying question of what kind of country we want to be needs to be debated.

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But the conclusion he draws, that we should leave the EU on Mrs May’s terms and then have a referendum in five years time, to see if we want to re-enter, would not assist in resolving these issues. Indeed, it would make it more difficult to settle them.

Already, we are seeing the uncertainties of a possible future outside the EU impinging on our economy, with the Government doing little to assist: the Scunthorpe steelworks is an example. The TUC and the CBI sing from the same hymn sheet in warning of the dangers to our financial stability of leaving. The reality of leaving would most likely mean the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer.

For years, we have heard the EU blamed for many things that are the fault of our own government. And instead of being pro-active in EU governance, providing a strong lead for a progressive and egalitarian system, we have stood on the sidelines and sniped. Leaving and still trying to trade with the EU would put us in the position of a relatively small country trying to trade with a large conglomerate of countries. We would be trading under EU rules without any say in making those rules. Bringing back control? Hardly!

And a referendum to return? Does Sir Steve think we would be allowed to rejoin on the same favourable conditions we currently enjoy? After all the fuss and mess we are creating? Now that is cloud cuckooland!

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If you are convinced (as I am) that leaving the EU will be economically disastrous for our country, and also threaten the peace that has largely held, then that narrow, very narrow vote in the referendum is not a clincher for the future of our country. Now that we have a clearer sense of what the consequences would be if we left, it makes sense to ask the people: what they now think we should do?

From: James Robson, Kirkbymoorside.

PANIC must really be spreading through the Remainer ranks if a group of wealthy businessmen have seen fit to attack the one Conservative Party leadership contender who can deliver Brexit.

I had seen it coming and immediately recognised it as a mean, undemocratic assault on Boris Johnson, a smear and another sneer at the majority who voted Leave in 2016.

Lots more pictures of a slogan on a bus of course, and no mention of the absurd and bogus claims of Project Fear who had far more money, and the weight of David Cameron’s government behind them, and still lost.

Get over it. Hail Boris!

From: Ken Cooke, Ilkley.

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TRUMP has been and Trump has gone. I hope we were all suitably impressed. Well, I wasn’t.

Did you hear the president? Loud and clear – “When it’s trade we’re talking, everything is on the table. Including the NHS.” What a bully. Is that what Brexiteers are looking forward to?

Remaining in the EU is about an alliance with like-minded friends, where we have the confidence and the strength to stand up to the superpowers like Donald Trump or Vladimir Putin, and even China and India. The UK needs that strength.

Leaving the EU is absolute madness in terms of geopolitics. Let us remain in the world’s largest trading bloc and take no orders from bullies. Stop Brexit.

From: Graham Branston, Emmott Drive, Rawdon.

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WHAT a cruel irony when, just after Donald Trump heralded the possibility of a “phenomenal” UK-US trade deal, Ford announces the closure of its engine plant in Bridgend next year with the loss of 1,700 jobs. Another blow on the back of Honda to our motor industry.

As I’ve said before, it’s high time we again developed our own motor vehicle industry. Let’s make Britain great again as Trump would say of the USA.

From: T Rhodes, Leeds.

WHO can blame US President Donald Trump for not wanting to meet Opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn who, he says, is a negative influence? It is frightening that this third-rate Marxist could be Prime Minister in the near future.

From: Mr R Watkinson, Leeds.

JEREMY Corbyn should respect Donald Trump’s position as a world leader, even if you do not respect the man (Bernard Ingham, The Yorkshire Post, June 5). He has a great alliance with England. This must be kept intact at all costs.

From: Mr PL Taylor, Milner Street, Lockwood, Huddersfield.

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OUR Queen is a wonderful lady she always keeps this country on the right track. Without her, the “great” might have been taken out of Great Britain and this country might have gone down a sideline to oblivion.

Beware racket

From: Nick Hudson, Harrogate.

I NOTED with interest – and concern – the proposed business relationship between Amazon and Deliveroo. I’m not a great fan of the gig economy. Can we expect increased numbers of Deliveroo delivery riders with deficient silencers on their 125cc motorcycles delivering a wider range of products at all hours of the day and night down our residential roads?

Lend me a fan

From: Jennifer Bookbinder, Cottingley Gardens, Leeds.

I WONDER who decides to put full central heating on at Leeds Central Library in June? The other Saturday was stifling in the library. What a total waste of money.