YP Letters: Absurd plan for a second Brexit referendum

DO those pushing for a “People’s Vote” on the Brexit withdrawal treaty realise the absurdity of what they are asking for?

Unless the Government is prepared to provide a copy of the withdrawal treaty, together with explanatory notes, to every household in the country and give them time to digest the contents, the vote is then meaningless.

As this is not going to happen, the electorate would have to base their vote, as was the case in the original referendum, on gut instinct, bullet point presentations and soundbites from biased parties promoting their own agenda.

The only people to possibly benefit from a second referendum are Remainers who are desperately hoping that a second campaign of Project Fear would persuade enough of the electorate to change their mind with regard to leaving the EU.

When there was a movement for a referendum on capital punishment and fox hunting, the electorate were informed that decisions on such matters were best left to their elected representatives in Parliament.

The same principle should now be applied to the withdrawal treaty, although I have yet to be convinced that the majority of MPs will totally understand what they are voting for any more than the person in the street.

From: Coun Tony Galbraith (Con), Elloughton, Brough.

LIKE Callum Hawthorne (The Yorkshire Post, September 18) I read chemistry at Leeds University but in my case, it was shortly before we joined what was then called the Common Market.

The university was very different in those days, with only about a third of the current numbers of students. I still met, however, fellow students from every continent and had friends who went abroad to study, although mainly to North America rather than Europe. Whatever happens about Brexit, I am sure the university and its students will continue to prosper.

Callum trumpets EU support for British science but the reality is far different. The money involved is simply recycled British money and our chemical industries, like the rest, have been debilitated by our EU membership.

Callum advocates another referendum as a step towards us re-joining the EU. It is possible but surely not for at least another 10 years. It will take at least that long to be sure who was wrong and who right in the argument.

A premature referendum would settle nothing and serve only to re-open the wounds in our society. In the meantime, it is up to the current UK Parliament to come up with a deal which most people can live with.

In 50 years’ time, when Callum will be about the same age as I am now, I predict that the history books will record that Brexit happened just in time to save the UK from the worst effects of the disintegration of the EU, caused by its internal contradictions.

From: John Van der Gucht, Clayton Hall Road, Cross Hills.

FARMING Minister George Eustice’s article (The Yorkshire Post, September 17) on planned reforms to agriculture completely ignores the elephant in the room with regard to farming in this region.

Ninety per cent of UK lamb and beef exports go to the EU. As a result of the politicking in the Tory party, there is massive uncertainty over just what the post-Brexit position will be.

This is putting the livelihoods of livestock farmers in jeopardy. They need some certainty, and fast! Furthermore, the possibility of ‘no deal’, and WTO rules applying, could spell disaster.

From: Brian Johnston, Leeds.

THE EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) penalises the UK, as we pay the biggest subsidy, and get little back. CAP also dictates what produce we can import from the rest of the world, to protect Europe’s farmers.

The good news is that this will all change when we leave the stranglehold of the EU, with free trade on our terms with the rest of the world.

Finest ales in the Dales

From: Terry McLaughlin, Leeside, York.

I SPOTTED the reference to the George & Dragon pub in Hudswell (The Yorkshire Post, September 15) in your social media round-up.

I first came across this delightful pub in the early 1960s when, as a member of the Territorial Army, we visited the firing ranges at Bellerby camp situated on the moors between Leyburn and Hudswell.

In those days, it sold the best pint of Newcastle Breweries Blue Star Exhibition Bitter anywhere. It was pure nectar.

I still call in to the G&D 
when I am in the area but, 
at 84, it is not as often as in days of yore.

Good to see it received the recognition it deserves.

Recipe for rural ruin

From: Liam Stokes, Head of Campaigns, Countryside Alliance.

THE People’s Manifesto for Wildlife (The Yorkshire Post, September 19) is a fig leaf for the well-worn obsessions of the animal rights lobby.

Sensible ideas about greater outdoor education in schools, about which there has been consensus among countryside groups for decades, cannot disguise the anti-hunting, anti-shooting, anti-farming agenda at the heart of the document.

Withdrawing all subsidy from upland farmers, forcing them to rely on environmental payments that come in the form of compulsory land purchase by the state, is a recipe for the destruction of upland family farms and communities.

It is beyond time that policy-makers stopped listening to celebrities with social media followings and insetad started building coalitions with the people who actually live in the countryside – and work on the land.