YEP Letters December 12

‘The country deserves better’

Derrick Bond, Shadwell

The fact that Dominic Grieve said that MPs are ‘taking back control’ proves that politicians never had any intention of implementing the views of the electorate.

These people seem to think they have a divine right to know better than the 17.4 million people who voted to leave. If the Remainers get a second vote because the voters are deemed to have got it wrong the first time, can Spurs keep playing Arsenal until they win?

I am ashamed to have this self-centred lot running our country. We deserve better.

Walking away option is a must in negotiations

M Haley, Leeds.

So Parliament wants a bigger say in the negotiations now the vote has been pulled on Theresa May’s deal?

I am surprised at the optimism of MPs, but not their ignorance. How do they think they can do any better without the walk away option – a must in any negotiation strategy?

The EU can stand firm and leave all the worrying to the UK, as they have done, despite the fact that they need a deal just as much as we do.

The balance of trade argument stands firm in that they sell more to us than we do to them.

The bigger advantage for the UK in the negotiations, that we are not playing on, is that the euro is also likely to fall if there is no deal with a similar, if not worse, impact on prices and inflation.

The UK is fortunate in that it has its own currency.

UK sailing into rocky waters

Ian Smith, Bradford.

WHEN a ship sets sail, she’s piloted by a captain who’s determined to arrive unscathed at a known destination.

But captains often have to steer very skilfully through bad weather with tempestuous and violent seas in order not to falter or even sink.

However, he or she makes sure that lifeboats, belts and jackets, or alternative options, are available just in case.

It seems that HMS The Deal, with Captain May at the helm, doesn’t have such life-saving equipment, or alternatives available on board; or if she has, then they’re known only to the ship’s executive crew.

Passengers and non-executive crew would dearly like Captain May to inform them, in the event that the ship takes in water, where the action stations are and how to either abandon ship, or to where the injured ship will stagger and detour.

And they’d like to know while the ship’s en route to its desired port, and before the forecasted storm arrives, not 21 days after the ship flounders.

No right-minded, sensible person wants the passengers to hijack the ship – as they apparently seek to do in Paris this week.

PM has habit of doing U turns

John Cole, Shipley

I HAVE noted that Mrs May, our respected Prime Minister, has developed a habit of doing handbrake U turns.First, early last year she was certainly not going to call an early general election. Then she did.

Last week and over the week-end she was adamant that the vote on her deal would go ahead in the Commons tomorrow. Now she has cancelled the vote.

For months now Mrs May has asserted that a “People’s Vote” would never take place on her watch.

Does that make a People’s Vote a racing certainty? I hope so.

Feeling cheated over pension

Beverley Richardson, Leeds

In response to Michael Webb’s letter on women’s pensions. I am one of the 1950s women he refers to.

No, I didn’t pay the small stamp nor did I rely on my husband’s contributions. Yes, I did get notified that my pension age was changing, which I accepted.

What I cannot accept was the second notification I received telling me that my pension was being deferred yet again.

This resulted in my friend who was born the same year as me (1953) but five months earlier getting her pension two years before I got mine.

Fair’s fair, Mr Webb, and that is far from it, so excuse me for feeling cheated.

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