YP Letters Brexit Special Part 1: This humiliating deal treats us as a defeated enemy and will poison our politics

Will we ever learn from history? The world movingly paused last weekend to make memorial of the millions killed and maimed in the First World War. The settlement on a defeated Germany afterwards was so humiliating that it contributed to the causes of the Second.

Germany had to pay reparations of £29 billion in today’s prices to a broken Europe. In the Brexit agreement, we have to pay £39 billion to a prosperous Europe for a piece of paper.

Germany had to cede territory, as she lost Alsace-Lorraine to France. We have to cede control of the economy of Northern Ireland to the Commission and the Irish Government in perpetuity.

Germany was an imperial power. The UK is a democratic country in which the greatest exercise of self-determination has been undermined by our own Prime Minister.

Germany had to disarm. Labelling the UK as officially untrustworthy and banning our involvement in the Galileo system we built and paid for, we are still obliged to spend our treasure and blood in their defence.

That is a task they deem unworthy of their own contribution, except to oppose the United States.

We will have no seat at their tables on which our policies will be decided. We will have no right to sign our own international trade deals. We will not be allowed to compete. Just pay up and shut up. And the Government says that this is delivering the referendum result we all wanted? The Versailles Treaty created the Second World War. This punishment beating of a deal will harden our politics for a generation. With the approval of Mrs May they are treating us not as a major ally, but as a defeated enemy which deserves punishment for wanting freedom from their rule.

YP Letters Brexit Special Part 2: The electorate was misled. It’s time for a People’s Vote.

From: Karl Sheridan, Old Lea, Holme upon Spalding Moor.

The announcement that the Cabinet had accepted Theresa May’s Brexit deal smacks of political bias, and their acceptance of what is ragingly obvious as a bad deal is purely in an effort to keep Jeremy Corbyn out of Number 10 rather than for the benefit of this country.

Right from the start of negotiations the Government – with the exception of David Davis who tried very hard to push the right buttons with Brussels – has stalled and dithered and repeatedly capitulated to the detriment of Brexit.

We all know that the EU has been determined all along to make it as hard as possible for the UK to leave with any viable trade deals or concessions because of the risk that other member states will also follow our example.

Quite honestly I wouldn’t put it past the government and Remainers to have been more than sympathetic to this attitude hoping that a new referendum will arise as a result.

What I can’t understand is why – considering that we are the seventh-largest economy – we have been forced to grovel cap in hand before Brussels.

Furthermore I can’t understand why Brussels didn’t bother to ask why we wanted to leave prior to the referendum; surely had they asked that question they might have convinced us to stay by making some sensible changes to their policies?

If this new deal is passed by Parliament then quite frankly we will all have been sold down the river.

We will be forever be tied to a costly bureaucratic dictatorship that as it increases in size becomes more and more lethargic and unwieldy.

The old adage of putting all one’s eggs in one basket comes to mind, because mark my words the EU will begin to crumble.

We already can see signs of small cracks forming in the foundations and if we are forced to stay allied with them, then we too will sink with the rest!

From: Geoff Thorpe, Lister Avenue, East Bowling, Bradford.

Over the last few months I have been listening and reading about leaving the EU.

We have got near a deal and then we haven’t and the public are getting fed up of it.

To me the reason for this is two-fold; firstly the way the so-called political elite treat the electorate as serfs and think they should ride roughshod over voters’ wishes.

Secondly, the ex-Prime Ministers and ex-members of the EU elite who in a lot of cases are more bothered about their 
gravy-train pension than their country.

These so-called lords and ladies have been doing their best to stop Brexit. If these people had accepted the vote to leave and supported the majority of the electorate I am sure a good trade deal would have now been reached.

From: David Watson, Ledbury Croft, Leeds.

All I’ve read about for a year is Remainers moaning “People were misled over the financial implications. They didn’t understand when they voted.” Guess what? They’re right and furthermore, many still don’t – but they don’t care!

Millions voted to leave purely down to immigration issues, but couldn’t say that for fear of being labelled racist.

I’ve heard so many people talk about this on buses, in shops, on the street, and we’re not just discussing “a few”.

If it comes to a second referendum (which would be a dangerous day for so-called “democracy”), the new result might not be as predictable as the Remainers seem to think.

From: Peter Hyde, Driffield.

I THINK that Mrs May has betrayed her country in two ways.

First of all, she has abandoned us to the criminals by cutting 20,000 police officers, she has also been instrumental 
in reducing prison officer numbers so that prisoners now effectively run some of the country’s jails.

Secondly, she is doing her best to keep us tied to the EU for the foreseeable future by fudging the deal she wants us to accept to leave the EU.