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Getting facts straight

I just can’t let John Stooke get away with the falsehoods he made in his tirade on the 13th, Nov.

John should be careful what he wishes for. From what we hear today this Deal is a Remainers paradise, half out but staying in for an undefined length of time, with no seat at the table but still paying. We Leavers won’t call for another referendum, but we will call for a new leader that will fulfil the Brexit promise.

What scares us is that we are being fed lies about how dire it will be if the UK actually does leave the EU. These so-called “facts” are just someone’s suppositions, and people are beginning to believe them. This pattern follows the lies told when we joined the EEC, it will never be a superstate or affect our laws, it’s just a trading agreement, and people believed this pack of lies.

True or false? Be warned, I have both sides’ leaflets from 1974, so I know the facts.

The Channel 4 program was travesty, the question about free movement of labour was passed off as a vote for free movement of people. Nigel Farage tried to comment on that but was cut off. I think we all agree on free movement of labour, taking in the best skilled people where there are vacancies.

No one, at this stage, knows what deal is on offer, so we don’t know the “facts”, as John claims, and probably never will. How can anyone possibly make an informed judgement on guesswork? We also need to know which way the EU is heading.

John, I have answered you, so I ask again, no one replied last time: All member states will have to join the Euro currency. Do you accept that? There is going to be a European army. Will you hand over our regiments to Europe? Free movement of people is un-negotiable with an intransigent EU. Acceptable? European Court of Justice still superior to UK courts. Acceptable? Please inform us of next year’s UK’s membership fee, should we stay in.

I could carry on, but there is a limit on number of words for publication.

Alan Spencer, Swindon

Sheer arrogance

John Stooke asks why some Brexiteers (but not all) appear to reject the idea of a second referendum vote and he states with a degree of arrogance that anyone who opposes a second vote is not a “sensible thinking person”. To add insult to injury, John continues by describing anyone who voted to leave the EU as being part of a body which “harked back to the days of Empire” and consisted of “old soldiers who’ve never forgotten European conflicts” which I am sure resonates well given that we have just commemorated the signing of the Armistice and remembered the fallen of two world wars.

Finally, with a flourish so unworthy of John he states without any sense of irony that people who voted to leave, that’s all 17 million, were motivated to offer succour to racists. Of course John has absolutely no evidence to support his outrageous claims, but they make good press.

So let’s go back in time and review what the EU referendum promised and begin with saying that politicians of all the main parties acknowledged the vote would be a ‘once in a generation event’ and signed up to the ‘people’ being given a voice and a choice. Even the most die-hard Remainers acknowledged the vote was lost by them and won by Leave; and yes John it was a shock. As the might of the state, the power of the media and the use of foreign powers used the tactics of fear and isolation, the people had the effrontery to say no to the all too mighty political construct which is the EU.

In a glorious example of daring to do the very opposite of what the elite were demanding, the people voted. And it is this single issue which frustrates good folk like John. He claims to want a people’s vote - he doesn’t, he wants ANOTHER vote, a second bite of the cherry, and this time he thinks his cause will prevail not because of some conclusive logic that this country cannot succeed unless it is tied to the EU, but because he and others like him believe the constituent base has changed. They pin their hopes on a belief that the people John refers to in such disparaging terms will either be too tired to take the time to vote again; or worse, they will have died. In their place will be a new cohort of young voters, those who were unable to vote in the last election as they were too young.

The ‘people’ - over 17 million of them – voted to leave the EU. They knew that would mean leaving the single market and the customs union. They hoped that the EU would be pragmatic and conduct sensible withdrawal terms and negotiate a mutually beneficial Free Trade Agreement. Sadly, the ideological mindset of the bureaucrats in Brussels has seemingly mitigated against a positive outcome for either.

I would not be surprised if the Government capitulated and held another vote, but I have a sincere belief that this Country can mix it with the very best in the world and we don’t need the EU to achieve that.

Des Morgan, Caraway Drive, Swindon

Even more determined

In reply to John Stooke, he quotes a poll of 20,000 on Channel Four, well known for its sympathies with the Metropolitan London Liberal Elite Brigade. Let me remind him of a larger poll in 2016 of 33,551,983 of valid votes cast. That is 33,531,983 more than Channel Four’s. He mentions a wafer thin majority in that poll. Let me quote him the figures of that wafer thin majority he mentions of 1,269,501. It would certainly fill Wembley Stadium with a full house of 90,000 for 14 games in a row.

Chris Hanratty, a politics lecturer at the University of East Anglia, by statistical analysis declared that if the referendum had been a General Election, the leave majority would have taken 401 seats out of a total of 632. I make that an overall majority of 170 seats. I suspect any Prime Minister wouldn’t mind that wafer thin majority. He sneers at the ‘best of three argument’ the Leavers quote the Remainers are demanding. Why did we not have a best of three when Blair won with a three figure majority in 1997? That is how ridiculous their argument stands in scrutiny.

He then says no Brexiteer can answer his question of what they would vote now given the facts to date. Well Mr Stooke, you never asked me. So we will solve that problem on these pages. In view of recent up to date events I am a thousand times more determined to see us out of the cess pit of economic failure and of self interested non-elected bullies dictating to my country with their petty intransigent attitude than I was in 2016.

Bill Williams, Merlin Way, Covingham, Swindon

A moving occasion

I am writing to say how much I enjoyed the Remembrance Day parade held in Swindon on Sunday. This was indeed a very solemn occasion and very well organised by the Royal British Legion and Swindon Borough Council.

I have never witnessed so many people attend this occasion before, Regent Street was packed. I would like to thank the Swindon branch of the Royal British Legion and the Swindon cabbies for picking me up in Wroughton and returning me home at the conclusion of the occasion. This was a marvellous gesture for myself and no doubt so many others likewise, for which I was very, very grateful.

Finally as an ex-serviceman (RAF) I would like to commend the excellent role carried out by the young man for the excellent job done by him in charge of the Swindon Branch of the Air Training Cadets (ATC). He had total control of these young people male and female and his eyes left and his salute as they passed the cenotaph was excellent. If his parents were in attendance at the parade they must have been very proud of their son’s efforts. I felt a lot of pride at attending this wonderful and solemn occasion. Well done Swindon.

RJ Preston, Edgar Row Close, Wroughton