YP Letters: Brexit is a price not worth paying

AMID the barrage of Vote Leave attacks on the EU, there are clear signs that “out” campaigners hope a UK vote to leave on June 23 will trigger the start of the end of the EU and the Eurozone.

Setting aside the delusions, both sides in the referendum agree that trade is essential for the UK – in or out of the EU. Regardless of the outcome of the June 23 vote, the EU will be our largest business market for years to come (building up business elsewhere will not be easy, quick or one-way traffic), so how can any threat to that biggest market help anyone other than the “elite” Vote Leave demagogues?

And with global markets now so interconnected, any impact on the EU market (of 27 or 28 member states) will also have repercussions for other markets (including the US and BRIC countries) with which we also need to trade.

Nervous markets and low growth threaten UK businesses, and the people and public services whose wages and running costs depend on them.

Clearly the debate club Vote Leave demagogues don’t care. Those of us making the case to remain do.

From: Robert Holland, Skipton Road, Cononley, Keighley.

THE NHS – at the heart of Brexit campaigning – has got the Leave campaign into trouble. First, Michael Gove quoted Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS) that £8bn net could be saved by Government after Brexit. He would spend it on the NHS. The IFS said he misquoted them; by their estimate, our economy would shrink by more than 0.6 per cent if we leave.

Now another Tory, Dr Sarah Wollaston MP, a former GP, has left the “Leave camp” to support “Remain”. She gave two reasons: the claim that Brexit would free up £350m per week “simply isn’t true” and a lower GDP means cuts for the NHS.

One more question for Yorkshire voters: The leading Brexit Tories and Ukip leaders represent Home Counties and wealthy London suburbs. None from north of Watford. Can we trust this crew?

From: Paul Muller FRCS, Woodthorpe Gardens, Sandal, Wakefield.

BEFORE, during and after the Second World War, many Germans, Austrians, Poles and Hungarians came to Great Britain, America and Canada. They have helped to make us what we are today.

Migration of peoples to Great Britain is a good thing for us and must not be made into a reason for leaving the EU.

My parents were migrants from Germany before the Second World War; this is the only reason why I, my brother and sisters are alive today. I will be voting to stay in.

From: Mary Jackson, Kirk Ella.

IF you are wondering how to vote in the EU referendum, you might like to consider why the only well-known political figures in the wider world who claim that leaving the EU would be advantageous to the UK are Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and the ultra-right wing Marine Le Pen. What is their agenda?

Certainly an economically weaker and politically destabilised Europe is in their interest and definitely not in ours.

From: Alan Machin, Bawtry Road, Bessacarr, Doncaster.

AS someone who voted to stay in the Common Market, having been lied to by politicians, and who is living to regret it, I am surprised that so many people are having difficulty deciding which way to vote on June 23.

From: Arthur Quarmby, Underhill, Holme.

NEVER in British history has any Prime Minister told the electorate that Britain cannot thrive and prosper alone, and that we must shelter under the protective wings of Germany. There are lies, damned lies and Cameron’s lies.

From: John Watson, Rowan Court, Leyburn.

THE British have always been looked upon as being peace-loving, tolerant and respectful to one’s fellow men, but the venom expressed lately in speeches by some senior Tory MPs is not in the same mould. I have voted all my life for the Conservative party, but the insults prompt me to think again.

From: Samuel Moore, Halifax.

NOT all of the money goes to Brussels. More than plenty of it stays here. In the bank accounts of the over wealthy.

From: DM Loxley, Hartoft, Pickering.

THE EU gives us nothing which we have not already given them, less expenses of course.

From: Peter Bye, Park Crescent, Addingham.

UNCONTROLLED immigration should not be described as such. The most suitable word is invasion. The difference between civil and military invasion is simply the luggage.

From: JG Riseley, Harcourt Court, Harrogate.

JOHN Harris (The Yorkshire Post, June 11) speaks of a “race to the bottom” on immigration if we leave the EU. I would think such an effect far more likely if we stay.

It is unsustainable that we uphold free movement of people within the EU without our welfare systems converging.

From: Dave Asher, Pickard Crescent, Sheffield.

I HAVE rarely spoken to anyone who thinks local democracy a bad thing.

Yorkshire people and the Cornish, as just two examples, are always talking about having greater local powers.

I am gobsmacked that often, these same people who think Westminster too remote, can possibly believe that voting to be governed by Brussels makes any sense of their desires for increased local democracy.