YEP Letters: June 8

Americanisms do not rule OK!

R Kimble, Hawksworth

I DO not like our “special” relationship with America. I believe it has bought terrorism to our streets in the UK.

Less importantly but irritatingly it has bought Americanisms into our language. They way they pronounce words like “circulatory” or “aluminium” drives me mad. Recently I have noticed one particularly annoying linguistic tic enter our language on TV shows, in TV news programmes and by TV presenters and that is the pronunciation of the word “the”. It is pronounced “thee” as in “bee” NOT “thuh” as in “huh” before a word beginning with a vowel.

Thus they say “thuh “earth is round” as opposed to “thee earth is round”.

And so on and so forth.

Please don’t let their bastardisation of our language take over.

I would walk on broken glass to vote Leave

John Wainwright, by email

Amongst the many reasons for leaving the EU, one factor trumps all others as the key issue. Through the actions of Governments from Wilson and Heath through to Brown, the UK has given away the right of the British people to fully control how they are governed. The politicians we do elect are themselves at the mercy of the dictatorship that is the EU commission. None of what the EU commission does is subject to any form of democratic control - in fact they sneer at the very notion referring disdainfully as mere ‘populism’.

This referendum is far more important than any regular general election, because this time if we get it wrong, we won’t have another chance in 5 years time - if at all. We either go back to being an independent nation where we the electorate can hire and fire our lawmakers, or we sleepwalk into eventually becoming just a province of a federal superstate where we can’t.

Jean Monnet, one of the founding fathers of the EU once said:“Europe’s nations should be guided towards the superstate without their people understanding what is happening. This can be accomplished by successive steps, each disguised as having an economic purpose but which will irreversibly lead to federation.” so no-one can say we weren’t warned.

I’ve been waiting for this referendum for 20 years since it became clear what lies we had been told, and would walk barefoot on broken glass to the polling station if I had to. To those unsure of how to vote or even considering voting to remain I say go to YouTube and watch “Brexit the movie”, and then ask yourselves “Is this how I want our country to be run?”

It’s common sense to stay

John M Collins, Alwoodley

Much of what Derek Barker (YEP June 4,2016) is true. There are many states forming the European Union. And we are one of the strongest.

The smaller states look to us with respect to help maintain the balance and ensure they are not dominated by the economic strength of Germany. By voting to leave, we would be letting them all down. None of them want us to go. We should stay in. The Danes, who have no need of our money have appealed to us to stay in.

As for Terry Watson, he may think it will not be an economic disaster for us to leave, but I place more reliance on more than 100 manufacturers and exporters who wrote: “There are many benefits of EU membership.

It makes it easier for companies to start exporting, with one set of rules and with a market on our doorstep of more than 500 million consumers. Britain is a key player in Europe, often acting as a moderating influence in Brussels. That works in our favour and we think it is also good for the EU.” There is the voice of commonsense and knowledge, not the dishonest speculation of the Brexiteers.

Waiting for doomsday

Alan Thompson, Bramhope, Leeds

Listening to David Cameron,I’m beginning to worry. When is the plague of locusts likely to arrive? Whatever the outcome of the referendum Cameron will be “toast.”

He can now be seen as a devious hypocrite,who sees himself as the “heir to Blair,” and has certainly inherited those Blair traits of treachery and deceit.

Most people would think Gordon Brown was the worst Prime Minister in living memory.However,Cameron is is now successfully competing for this title.

Stay and we can live in peace

Mike Harwood, Kirkstall

Brenda Williams (YEP, JUne 6, 2016) should remember that before the Second World War there was the First World War (amongst others, Britain and France against Germany ) with the destruction of millions of lives and families.

And before the First World War was the Napoleonic War between (amongst others) Britain and France with the loss of over a million lives (though perhaps French deaths do not ‘count’ to people like Brenda!); and the various devastating wars in Europe in between. Brenda should not be sad. She should be as happy as is possible in these times and vote to remain, part of a united Europe.

A divided Europe is more likely to be a Europe at war with itself. Those who prefer the idea of living in peace to that of living under the shadow of the bayonet should vote to remain.

We do not have the true facts

Terry Watson, Adel

Mr Durant’s letter (YEP, June 3) was excellent.

He is quite correct that the public are not being given the facts about our EU membership and the true aims of the European Union.

The European Project was dreamed up in the 1920s by Jean Monet, a French brandy salesman and Arthur Salter, an English Civil Servant.

In 1931 Salter said”The United States of Europe must be a Political reality or it cannot be an economic one”.

So the Common Market that we voted to join for trade only was the start of the great deception.

Any say we had at the start have been eaten away by the many treaties our lazy politicians have signed without even reading them.

The European elite led by the new “Iron Lady “Angela Markel will not be satisfied until Europe is one big borderless country with a single currency. If we vote to stay, we will be paying for the destruction of Britain as we know it and we will be helpless to resist.

Vetoes now seem to be a thing of the past, they now conveniently have majority voting instead.

Anyone who wants the full story of the EU should read a book called The Great Deception, by Christopher Booker and Richard North and they will be disgusted by the way we were conned into joining the Common Market in the first place.

Positive reason to vote leave

Leo Wynzar, by email

Ever since the referendum was announced we, the general public, have been inundated with negative press from both sides of the argument for remaining or exiting the EU.

As someone who strongly believes that had we not joined the Common Market in the first place, all those years ago, the UK would be a far better place to live in, I was delighted to see a full page announcement from labour leave.org in the YEP of 3rd June, headed: Leave the EU and we could invest in our NHS.

I would urge everyone to read this announcement, as everything stated in it is not only entirely factual but is entirely POSITIVE!

In other words it sets out several POSITIVE reasons for leaving the EU.

Flouride should be in our water

Martin Schweiger, Leeds

You asked for comments about Wakefield Council’s decision to shelve the proposal to add fluoride to the drinking water supply.

I feel sorry for the children of Wakefield who will suffer the consequences of this decision for years to come.

If Yorkshire Evening Post staff and readers want to look at the evidence for yourself, please take a look at the NHS Choices website:

http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/Fluoride/Pages/Introduction.aspx