YP Letters: Our politicians failing to deliver Brexit

BLAMING the EU for intransigence is like blaming vicars for preaching against sin (Arthur Quarmby, The Yorkshire Post, April 27). The EU resembles a cult whose officers don’t understand why a country wants to leave.

Sensible observers realised leaving negotiations would not be easy. The only country to leave the EU so far, Greenland, reported that negotiations were “very difficult”.

While Greece didn’t leave, their failure to stick to EU rules led to a brutal Brussels approach impoverishing that country. Did no one on the British side learn from those experiences?

Leading leave campaigners misled the public during the referendum. Michael Gove once said: “The day after we vote to leave, we hold all the cards and we can choose the path we want.” If only.

Even worse Liam Fox said: “The free trade agreement that we will have to do with the European Union should be one of the easiest in human history.”

They were utterly wrong. Leaving the EU requires a careful approach with careful preparation. That hasn’t happened.

David Davis is a reasonably honest politician, but he and his Brexit department have never prepared fully for negotiations He told us impact assessments existed, when they did not.

Yes the EU is difficult, but the problems start here. The Government’s approach is a shambles from start to finish.

From: John Turley, Dronfield Woodhouse.

NICK Martinek and others (The Yorkshire Post, April 27) demonstrate yet again the hypocrisy of the Brexiteers 
when he states ‘What principle can be invoked to force us to obey the result of a second referendum, when Remain 
won’t accept the first?’.

They conveniently forget that one of the main reasons why there was a referendum in 2016, was that some politicians and individuals never accepted the result of the 1975 referendum, and spent years pushing for another referendum before finally getting their way.

From: Dr David Hill, CEO, World Innovation Foundation, Huddersfield.

WHEN you look at the success of the German economy and the UK economy, you see two totally different political mindsets in terms of achieving the long-term economic wellbeing for their respective nations and peoples.

In this respect, after the Second World War, Germany saw that only through having a dominant manufacturing export economy could they forge economic dynamism, but UK politicians saw the crock of gold at the end of the rainbow in building up the City of London.

In this respect also, the Germans saw economic stability in terms of engineering manufacturing where the British saw stability in the financial markets. But we don’t need to be an Einstein to see what happened here with these two totally different economic models and what the 2007 financial meltdown did to the two economic strategies.

That’s where British politicians went wrong, and are still doing so, by placing most of their economic eggs in the financial basket and not the manufacturing basket.

Indeed, there is no doubt that there will be another financial meltdown eventually, as history has shown, and although German manufacturing will be hit by this, they will come out of the other side and emerge stronger as they always do.

Lessons to be learnt here I believe, but will anyone in the Government take note? I very much doubt it.

From: Robert Bottamley, Thorn Road, Hedon.

I SEEM unable to find the 
place where, according to Michael Meadowcroft (The Yorkshire Post, April 30), I have written ‘that a legal ruling is not valid unless it is publicised by all the media’. Perhaps he could point me to it?

I notice Mr Meadowcroft’s reference to ‘all the media’. But the issue is not that ‘all’ the 
media neglected to discuss the advisory nature of the referendum: the real point here is that, all through the long campaign, none of the media so much as hinted at it.

Third, this neglect was not limited to newspapers, television and radio coverage. The Government’s official pamphlet – supposedly produced to educate us so that we could make an informed decision – contained no reference to the referendum being only advisory.

Quite the contrary: as David Gray pointed out in a letter published alongside Mr Meadowcroft’s, it took great pains to emphasise the importance and finality of the vote.

Life in the deep freeze

From: CJ Ball, Finkil Street, Hove Edge, Brighouse.

FURTHER to reports on the state of our roads, particularly following the recent colder period and the “Beast from 
the East”, I am reminded of a visit to my brother in Winnipeg, Canada, a city of some half a million people (The Yorkshire Post, May 2).

There the average temperature for January is minus 19 degrees Centigrade, and from November onwards they drive on compacted snow and ice, with winter snow chains on all vehicles.

He said that they have two seasons on their roads – winter and construction.

Flagging up election tactics

From: Elisabeth Baker, Leeds.

LOCAL elections are to be held today. Yet again, the Conservative flags in the central reservation of the top of Scott Hall Road in Moortown have been removed and the Alliance for Green Socialism and other left-wing advertising has replaced them.

The people who have done this clearly do not believe in democracy.