YP Letters: Case for EU goes up in smoke

MEMBERSHIP of the EU is a bit like smoking: it costs you a fortune each day and you know it will kill you eventually, but you keep doing it.

Of all the guff that’s been written about the pros and cons of leaving the EU, most may or may not happen, but is not dependent on our membership

But there are two definite facts that can’t be disputed. We pay around £55m a day for membership. For this, we allow strangers to tell us what we can and can’t do and most of their edicts are certainly not to our advantage.

The main problem we, and the rest of the western world, have to deal with is the increasing debt we have accumulated. As the Romans and the USSR discovered, credit eventually runs out.

From: Phil Hanson, Beechmount Close, Baildon.

THE recent pleading by the artistic set really takes the biscuit. Those who profit from multi-million pound contracts with the BBC are now telling us that the EU is vital because of the funding they get.

Well just as the immoral TV tax is a rip-off in the name of free speech, the EU is only giving us back our money. The luvvie set would do well to remember this.

I am minded to recall the words of Machiavelli. “There is nothing more difficult to plan, more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to manage, than the creation of a new system. For the initiator has the enmity of all who would profit by the preservation of the old institution and merely lukewarm defenders in those who gain by the new ones.”

From: Frank Beill, Knowsley Avenue, Cottingham.

THE other day, a leaflet came though our letterbox in Cottingham entitled The UK and the European Union: The Facts.

One would assume that this leaflet, distributed by eureferendumfacts.org was unbiased information.

However, on close examination I noticed the leaflet states in tiny print on the last page that it is “promoted by Matthew Elliott on behalf of Vote Leave Ltd”. This is simply American-style dirty tricks electioneering.

From: Sergi Singh, Hull.

I HEAR a lot of talk from Brexit campaigners that June 23 should, assuming we win the referendum of course, be called “Independence Day”. I disagree with that name, although not the argument.

I feel there is a strong case for using the name “Thorburn Day” in honour and memory of Sunderland greengrocer Steve Thorburn, the man called the “metric martyr” who was charged in 2001 with the heinous crime of selling his wares by the pound weight. The stress of this led to his untimely death from a heart attack in 2004 at only 39 years of age. What better way to remember his sacrifice than by naming our day of deliverance after him?

From: Andrew Dennis, Vote Leave - Harrogate & Knaresborough, East Parade, Harrogate.

THOSE of us who still believe in the strengths and abilities of the UK know much better what is out there – lands filled with opportunity and we

should take those opportunities with all the eagerness which that experience allows.

From: Peter Bye, Addingham.

IF I was advised to invest in a company that has refused to have its books audited for around 20 years, would I be right in thinking the adviser was raving mad?

From: Colin Richardson, Brandesburton.

SHOULD the vote result in a leave decision, these same MPs and civil servants will still be in charge, and totally incapable of leading the country and negotiating any new international agreements that would be necessary to enable the UK to thrive and put the ‘great’ back into Great Britain.

From: Nick Yates, Laverock Lane, Brighouse.

MAY I make clear the simple facts about trade and leaving the EU? Once outside the EU we would trade worldwide without the costly bureaucracy and tariffs the EU presently impose. We would trade more profitably with the growing economies of the world and the price of goods especially food would drop.

One last point. If you are undecided consider this: If we weren’t in the EU now would you vote to join?

From: Geoff Sweeting, Wressle, Selby.

TWO excellent articles (The Yorkshire Post, June 20) by John Longworth and Bill Carmichael should be required reading for all our politicians, who are desperate to stay in the EU. The attitude of the authors is calm and reasonable, with none of the hysteria or threats that emanate from the Remain group.

From: Brian Sheridan, Redmires Road, Sheffield.

DAVID Downs cites our recent lack of success in the Eurovision Song Contest as evidence of our low status in Europe (The Yorkshire Post, May 16). The ESC began as an innocent diversion all those years ago, but it has acquired a pathetic political significance. The history of the contest shows a disproportionate rate of success among “Cinderella” competitors. I believe we are disliked for our arrogance.