YP Letters: A denial of democracy to defy Brexit voteap

IT WAS heartwarming to see so many women and girls marching throughout the UK to celebrate the extension of the franchise a century ago.

But it is heavily ironic, that after the largest demonstration of the democratic will in history, the EU referendum, our Remainer Prime Minister, the Remainer majority of her Cabinet, the majority of MPs in Parliament, the civil service and Remain-supporting media outlets are working to undermine the result and work against it.

President Lincoln defined democracy in words most of us would know by heart. After Parliament told us that the final decision on our membership of the EU would remain in the hands of the people, they have rejected our democratic verdict.

For now, democracy is the government of the people, by the metropolitan elite, for the metropolitan elite. And the Devil take the hindmost.

For many in the North, the Midlands and Brexit voting areas that elite has now determined that our votes are worthless.

Many of the same elite are damning President Trump for his breaking of agreements made in good faith by the United States. The elite is doing the same to the electorate, and it begs the question whether or not the decision to offer the people a vote on Brexit made itself made in good faith.

Brexit means Remaining. Perhaps it always did.

It is our democracy that is in danger. Do our votes count?

From: David Lewis, Cawood, Selby.

GREAT scientists often carry out “thought experiments”. These are impossible in the real world, but, in the process of considering them, new light is shone on intractable problems.

Let’s try one such with Brexit. Imagine we are contented Europeans, but the French aren’t, and they’ve decided to Frexit. As part of Frexit, their negotiating team tell us that it’s down to the EU to sort out the border between France and Spain.

After leaving, the French also haughtily inform us they still expect to be part of several European projects, even though they won’t be paying into project funds, nor can they guarantee the privacy of any security matters arising from such projects.If we don’t agree with these terms, they’ll start up their own versions.

Furthermore, if we don’t agree with their terms, money arising from treaties signed by their President as recently as 2012 will be withheld, and French wine must be repatriated from the cellars in Brussels.

Go on – be honest. The UK would hardly accept such a French position without demur, wouldn’t it?

Patriotism or nationalism?

From: James Robson, Kirbymoorside.

I watched the Trooping of the Colour – a celebration of the monarch’s birthday and a tribal affirmation of loyalty and stability and continuity.

The following day, I saw a few minutes of The Big Question in which a liberal bluestocking took it upon herself to explain one of the reasons for her tribe’s defeat in the EU referendum. The reason, predictably enough, was in her view down to English nationalism.

This seemed to me to be an interesting case of semantics and posed several questions: were the soldiers on parade and on the battlefields of English history over centuries patriots or (God forbid) nationalists? Why is it that the Scots and Welsh who bang on interminably about their pride in their nations hardly ever get ‘called out’ in this way?

If Nicola Sturgeon gets another independence vote, and wins, we’ll never hear the end of the joys of being Scottish. Isn’t it time we left the Celts behind and formed an English Parliament in which we can bang on about our own marvellous country?

Enough 
is enough

From: LR Hirst, Northorpe, Mirfield.

THE YORKSHIRE Post and other newspapers have printed editorials about the running of our railways on the basis that ‘enough is enough’.

I watched the editor James Mitchinson on the news giving his opinion about the same subject, and he was correct to do so. But on June 4, The Yorkshire Post carried an article about the murder and burglary of a 73-year-old woman, with her stolen car not yet found.

On June 5, the newspaper carried a story about a 100-year-old lady who had her neck broken just for the theft of her handbag. She died the following day. When is somebody going to say ‘enough is enough’ in big print on the front page and demand a referendum to bring back the death penalty for such terrible crimes?

Scrap pay cap for 999 staff

From: Tim Mickleburgh, Boulevard Avenue, Grimsby.

IVAN KOVACKS (The Yorkshire Post, June 14) is right to want the one per cent pay cap be lifted for others in the public sector like the police and firemen.

It is worth pointing out 
that the deal giving NHS staff a six per cent rise over three years may be a better deal than before, but still works out on an annualised basis as less than the inflation rate.

So our nurses and doctors will continue to get worse off in real terms.

Dame Jenny

From: DP Lee, Blairsville Grove, Bramley, Leeds.

Congratulations to Sir Kenny Dalglish on being awarded a knighthood for his services to football in the Queen’s Birthday Honours. Is it not also time for Jenny Agutter to be awarded a long overdue Dameship for her services to the arts from the days of The Railway Children (1970) on the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway?