YP Letters: Get behind the Brexit negotiators

THE Yorkshire Post and others are critical of the Government’s handling of Brexit negotiations and give great prominence to the views of UK business leaders who talk of the dire consequences if we fail to get the deal they want, which is basically don’t rock the boat we want business as usual.

The media has failed to convey the message that this is not a one-sided argument and that the EU stand to lose more than the UK if we are unable to get an acceptable deal, EU companies sell about £80bn more to us in goods and services than we sell to them.

Take car sales. Eighty per cent of UK car production is exported, of which 54 per cent goes to the EU. The other way round, EU countries export 82 per cent of their cars to the UK.

About a fifth of all cars produced in Germany, around 820,000 vehicles, come here making the UK their biggest export market.

I wonder if these prominent car companies are worried about their job losses if we fail to get a deal and are they putting pressure on their negotiators 
and, if so, why have we not heard of it?

Our decision to leave has been made, and despite attempts to frustrate this, it is inconceivable that this will be reversed. We now need to all get behind our negotiators and stop the squabbling. It was never going to be easy, but we voted to come out and we must now be firm in our resolve, present a united front and work to secure a mutually equitable deal.

From: DS Boyes, Upper Rodley lane, Leeds.

IN 2016, the people of this country were given a unique opportunity to choose to leave the EU – an un-elected dictatorship. However there is a similar organisation a lot nearer to home, the West Yorkshire Combined Authority.

Did anyone in the five West Yorkshire councils get a vote on its formulation, constitution, who serves on it, who managers it or how much money each local authority gives it?

Every week, jobs on Ministerial wages are advertised as featured in Tom Richmond’s columns in your newspaper. Also decisions made on millions of public spending, with the public excluded. Should we have a referendum to scrap the WYCA? Many might say yes!

Living up to past glories

From: Mr GA Hall, Alwoodley, Leeds.

THE railways have had a bad time lately, so the ‘new’ name for the East Coast route – London North Eastern Railway – is a breath of fresh air. LNER may not mean much to the average rail passenger but between 1923 and 1948 it was one of the big four rail companies. The heydays were pre-Second World War and icons such as Flying Scotsman and Mallard. After the war, the railways were worn out, and financially on their knees and were nationalised in 1948.

In a positive vane, let us hope the new Azuma trains, which start running on the East Coast later this year, live up to the past glories of the old LNER!

City on road to nowhere

From: Peter Haddington, Prospect Place, Eccleshill, Bradford.

I SEE that Leeds City Council is planning on making Leeds a fairer, more prosperous and wealthy city, and they reckon that doubling the size of the city centre will help towards achieving this.

More prosperous and wealthy for who after plans are being proposed to start charging certain vehicles that are said to have high levels of exhaust emissions for going in and around the city centre? I don’t think the companies or people who own these vehicles are going to be any wealthier. If the highly-paid councillors had got their act together and organised a proper transport system instead of wasting fortunes of taxpayers money on failed attempts, as well as an almost redundant cycle track, it is unlikely that this problem would be anywhere near as bad as it is.

Don’t blame the Pennines

From: Granville Stockdale, Hardwick Street, Hull.

I NOTE with interest your report (The Yorkshire Post, July 4) that ‘the Department for Transport was considering not electrifying the route between Leeds and Manchester because of the cost and difficulty of fixing electric cables to Pennines (sic) rocks’. Really? If so, how come the (former) electrified ‘Woodhead’ route between Sheffield and Manchester was opened in 1954?

From: Andrew Mercer, Guiseley.

IF it was a case of upgrading the line from Chris Grayling’s Epsom constitutency to London Waterloo, it would have happened by now. So just why does he – and Theresa May – hate the North? It speaks volumes that they have still to reply to your front page comment on June 5 calling for action over the North’s trains. Who is advising them and what are our local Tory MPs doing?

Road peril

From: Ruth Watkinson, Aberford Road, Wakefield.

TONY Armitage (The Yorkshire Post, July 3) may have helped to explain why it’s so difficult for me to safely cross Bar Lane nearby, without the loss of limb or worse. It’s not just affected BMWs, it’s many other brands in my experience. Speed limits not being enforced add to the problem too.