YP Letters: EU kept the peace that we fought for

IN reply to Ian Oglesby’s letter “Sacrifices for our self-rule” (The Yorkshire Post, July 28), I have not forgotten the sacrifice my grandfather made. He was not one of thousands who gave his life; there were around a million military deaths in the British Empire. My grandfather was gassed in the First World War, fighting “For King and Country”.

His widow lived in fear of another European conflagration, keeping a stock of food essentials until she died in 1975.

I have lived all my adult life with Britain a member of the EEC/EU with a European war being inconceivable.

I would not presume to know what my grandfather would have thought about us leaving an institution one of whose benefits has been 70 years of peace amongst its members. Perhaps he might regret that the EU was not created at the end of the First and Second World Wars.

From: Frederick A Begbie, Harrogate Road, Harewood.

DESPITE fundamental differences in other areas, the one thing that serious commentators from all shades of the political spectrum agree upon is that the Brexit referendum had nothing whatsoever to do with the well-being of Great Britain but was, rather, a cynical attempt to heal the rifts that have bedevilled the Conservative Party since the 1960s.

Now that it has patently and painfully failed in achieving that objective, is it not the time for Conservatives to put country before party and disband? Those of a remaining disposition can migrate to the Lib Dems while the other faction can seek their spiritual home in the fascist parties of the far-right.

Then, and only then, will our people be able to make a truly democratic decision about their future relationship with Europe.

From: Gordon Lawrence, Sheffield.

AFTER reading the speech by Nick Baines, the Bishop of Leeds, on Brexit (The Yorkshire Post, July 25), I can only summarise it as a Remain sermon very skillfully disguised as intellectual thought.

He states, in his introduction, that his comments have nothing to do with Leave or Remain, but apart from pouring scorn on us poor Brits for our utter ineptitude with foreign languages, the remainder of his article is strangely all about Leave and Remain and the low level of debate that has been propagated by the decision to leave.

I wish to inform him that the major reason negotiations are moving like a carthorse in a quicksand is the mountain of rules and regulation that over the years has buried us in bureaucracy, together with the strong desire to punish the UK for daring to vote to leave this fountain of utopian enlightenment.

From: Barrie Crowther, Walton, Wakefield.

DONALD Trump shows the correct approach in the way of doing deals. Let the EU negotiators come here instead of our Ministers always being summoned to Brussels.

A Common Market is all we need, which is what was intended originally – a free trade area without tariffs and all the other complications that go with it.

Shut shops for Armistice Day

From: Canon Michael Storey, Healey Wood Road, Brighouse.

AN interesting debate is taking place (Jayne Dowle, The Yorkshire Post, July 30) regarding the possibility of the Government making Sunday, November 11, an official holiday, to be like Easter Day.

It would be a day when shops would be closed, as they were in the UK before the country lost its Christian roots and made Sunday like every other day.

Perhaps it should be remembered that holidays were originally Holy days, relating to events in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. Hence Good Friday is a Bank Holiday.

So, let’s “shut up shop” – all shops – on November 11 and remember all who were involved in or died in the First World War, and other wars, to keep our wonderful United Kingdom free.

From: M K O’Sullivan, Victoria Street, Allerton Bywater, Castleford.

JAYNE Dowle makes a very cogent argument for an Armistice Day public holiday, as in France and the US.

Reflecting on the war, it is worth remembering that France lost almost 1.5 million dead, far more than Britain, and so many more were wounded mentally and physically.

Return of the milk snatcher

From: John Appleyard, Firthcliffe Parade, Liversedge.

AS Education Secretary in Edward Heath’s government, Margaret Thatcher made a decision in 1971 to stop the provision of free school milk for junior school pupils which prompted the playground chant of ‘Thatcher, Thatcher, the milk snatcher’.

Now it is rumoured that Theresa May is considering cutting free milk for the under fives, which would see children across the country missing out on milk that helps them grow.

The plan has not been fully announced, but I would expect MPs to vote against it.

Lessons on transport

From: ME Wright, Harrogate.

WITH some surprise, I read that Edinburgh and Nottingham’s bus and tram networks are “publicly owned” and top of the league for ease of travel (The Yorkshire Post, July 27). Perhaps Holyrood’s more realistic interpretation of “public service” accounts for Edinburgh; but how have Nottingham managed to avoid the Westminster obsession with mindless, bus-bound competition?

Nottingham has a 32km tram network. Could the city’s councillors have a quiet word with far bigger Leeds and try to ease her into the 21st century?