YP Letters: Brexit spells doom for UK steel exports

I REFER to your feature article ‘Is Brexit steel’s saviour?’ (The Yorkshire Post, January 27).

It beggars belief to imagine that we can export worthwhile quantities of steel to the EU once we leave the single market and I agree with Sir Andrew Cook’s recent article in The Yorkshire Post that the path towards Brexit will only lead to catastrophe.

Governments will certainly favour their own domestic suppliers. The steel workers union in Germany, IG Metal, one the strongest unions in the world, will protect their workers.

Most of the 52 per cent of exports of steel from the UK to the EU in 2015 will disappear and of course the 12 per cent of steel we exported to the US will certainly be a distant memory.

Having seen the rust belt of the non-ferrous industry in Connecticut, I have every sympathy with President Trump in his attempts to protect his industries. It is pity our Prime Minister is not prepared to maintain free access to our most important export market, the EU.

From: Nick Martinek, Briarlyn Road, Huddersfield.

IT appears that Kamran Hussain of the Lib Dems (The Yorkshire Post, January 28) fails to grasp the irony of his approval of Parliamentary sovereignty to invoke Article 50 on the one hand, with his enthusiasm to destroy Parliamentary sovereignty by keeping the EU in control of the UK on the other.

Parliament only draws its legitimacy from the sovereignty of the people of the UK. That is the essence of democracy.

That is why the vote to leave is a mandate for Parliament to implement the leave decision. Yet the Lib Dems are so desperate to keep our nation under the thumb of the EU that they are exhibiting the same cynical duplicity which they employed to triple student loans. They are shameless.

Let America protect its own

From: Hilary Andrews, Leeds.

SURELY I’m not the only person to think that Theresa May was well within her rights to say that American foreign policy is decided by America and the UK decides its foreign policy? Why should we interfere in another country’s decisions? It hasn’t been a successful policy recently in Iraq, Afghanistan or Syria.

From: Edward Mitchell, Bridgwater, Somerset.

PRESIDENT Trump is actually doing something to keep Americans safe, fight the enemy and improve his country’s border controls. To put an executive order in place to stem the flow of people from seven Muslim countries, and the terrorists they so often contain, he is taking the correct action. Other politicians, like Barack Obama, merely talk about it – Trump actually does something. The ordinary, right-thinking people of England love President Trump!

An end to loneliness

From: Jean Lorriman, Huddersfield Older Fifties Forum.

THE late Labour MP Jo Cox was passionate about relieving loneliness and before her death had set up a commission about this subject (Rachel Reeves, The Yorkshire Post, January 28).

Last week, along with Judith Churley from Age UK, I was invited to an event whose sole purpose was to eradicate loneliness. One elderly lady spoke of one volunteer who had knocked on her door nine times before she dared open it but was so glad she did as it had changed her life. She gave a speech which spoke volumes about the benefits that volunteers can bring.

Court right on wheelchairs

From: Malcolm Wright, Harrogate.

THE Supreme Court’s decision on giving wheelchairs precedence over buggies was fair enough. Like reader Michael Green (The Yorkshire Post, January 27), I remain bewildered by the rigmarole which went with it; but what else could the court have suggested – bring back conductors perhaps? Highly improbable!

Has there been any response from the self-centred one who kicked off this sledgehammer-and-nut situation, with a refusal to co-operate by folding their buggy and holding the child?

Their Lordships’ impracticable waffle would seem to prove, beyond all reasonable doubt, that none of them uses buses. And yes, heaven help the hapless drivers!

Prisons need more staff

From: Peter Hyde, Driffield.

CAROLINE Flint MP (The Yorkshire Post, January 30) is so right when she says prison reforms must include an increase in staffing levels. It is the same in the police, immigration and most public services. The Conservatives, under Margaret Thatcher, ensured that all such offices were well-manned and able to do their duty to the fullest extent.

As a former police officer, I had staff to do everything that was asked of me and was able to attend every crime or other incident promptly. Now most minor crimes such as some shoplifting offences are no 
longer dealt with fully. When 
an arrest is made, often the offender is let off by the CPS who act as judge and jury in many minor cases. Justice is now considered secondary to number-crunching.

A sad loss

From: Janet Berry, Hambleton.

I WAS so sad to hear of the death of John Hurt. He was one of our most talented actors and his wonderfully distinct gravelly voice will be much missed.