YP Letters: Referendum Brexit vote not binding

YOUR correspondent Mr Christie of Helmsley (The Yorkshire Post, May 1) wants facts on the referendum. I can help him. First he says that the referendum was not “advisory”. The evidence that it was is publicly available in the House of Commons Library Briefing Paper to MPs, Paper 07212, dated June 3, 2015.

Section 5, page 25, states: “The Bill does not contain any requirement for the UK Government to implement the results of the referendum... Instead this is a type of referendum known as pre-legislative or consultative, which enables the Government to voice an opinion which then influences the Government on its policy decisions.

“The UK does not have constitutional provisions which would require the results of a referendum to be implemented.”

Second, he states that the margin of victory for the Leavers (over one million) was not “narrow.” On this Nigel Farage clearly regarded such a margin as narrow, stating in the Daily Mirror of May 16, 2015, that if the Remain vote won by such a margin – 52 to 48 per cent – he would demand a second referendum.

From: Dave Croucher, Pinfold Gardens, Doncaster.

TIM Farron, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, is trying to convince everyone that his party is the only alternative to the Conservatives, while the lame duck Jeremy Corbyn is forever promising things that anybody with a grain of sense must realise are not affordable without drastic changes to our economy and massive debts, while the Conservatives are about to perform the last rites on the NHS.

What a shower! What a pity Screaming Lord Sutch is no longer with us, he would certainly have been on a level playing field with this lot.

From: Barry Foster, High Stakesby, Whitby.

JUST when I was beginning to settle down and look forward to a pleasant summer, along comes Theresa May with her general election.

Yes it is much needed and I sincerely hope it will give her more strength to her elbow to get along with the long awaited Brexit negotations.

But is it too much to ask 
that between now and June 
we are not subjected to party leaders and such like attacking each other in often very abusive ways.

The worst offenders being Nicola Sturgeon and Tim Farron.

There is no need for it. It is childish and one would hope that people of their calibre would be able to conduct themselves in a more adult manner.

From: David Downs, Sandal, Wakefield.

DOESN’T it say a lot about those Opposition MPs who continually insist on asking the Prime Minister to verify that EU residents will be allowed to reside in the UK after we leave the European Union? The answer is obviously “yes” as the UK economy depends on their presence and would be seriously disadvantaged if they left.

From: Michael J Robinson, Park Lane, Berry Brow, Huddersfield.

FOLLOWING the announcement of a general election, the Prime Minister told us that a pledge to withdraw the UK from the European Court of Human Rights would not be included in the Conservatives’ manifesto to ensure that the matter will not be a distraction during Brexit negotiations.

This week we learned that the surviving Iranian terrorist from the 1981 Embassy siege has served his jail term and, since his release in 2008, has been living on Social Security benefits in Peckham. It was explained that he cannot be extradited to his native country because he might be executed by the Iranian regime.

Among the thoughts which occurred to me were that perhaps he should have thought about that risk before he took the hostages in the Embassy, two of whom were murdered. And that many people voted to leave the EU because it would mean we could rely on having human rights protected in this country by a judicial system which goes back to before the Magna Carta, rather than being told what we cannot do by an ECHR comprising representatives of countries; many of which have a judicial system which extends no further back than 1945.

From: Don Webb, Rothwell.

THE young Royals are wasting their time regarding mental health – they will change nothing. Theresa May has more faces than the town hall clock on mental health.

Unlike Princes William and Harry, most of the population cannot get private health care for mental health problems.

A few days ago the Labour Party said that they would increase carers’ allowance by £10. The Tories responded by saying they are putting extra money into social care. So? Carers’ allowance comes out of the DWP budget.

Roundly deceptive

From: Bob Watson, Baildon.

ISN’T it rather dishonest of the garages to sell petrol at point nine of a penny per litre, instead of being willing to quote to a full penny? This is surely an attempt to try and convince customers that it is slightly cheaper.

When will we get some honest companies selling per round penny?

Cold shoulder

From: Terry Morrell, Willerby.

RE cold callers, your reader Mrs Whitaker simply needs to switch on her answerphone. She can then ignore unwanted calls and pick up for friends and family.

She will also find that 90 per cent of nuisance callers ring off as soon as they get the recorded message asking the caller to leave a name and number. Easy!