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It’s all an act

Patrick Brennan offers a critics view of the ‘thespian’ production which can justly be called Brexit – The Farce but I believe he is wrong to call for the ‘plug to be pulled on this production by revoking Article 50. (SA 26 Feb)

The people of the UK were asked to vote on whether or not we Remained or Left the EU. The voting public, which consisted of those who supported political parties and those who had little if any interest in politics voted to Leave. Subsequently, MPs voted to invoke Article 50; and while they may say the Leavers didn’t know what they were doing when they voted, surely the same cannot be said of them – or is the case they debated Article 50 for two days, voted by 498 votes to 114 to pass the bill and didn’t understand what it mean to leave with no deal.

The late Paddy Ashdown said: “I will forgive no one who does not accept the sovereign voice of the British people once it has spoken, whether it is by one per cent or twenty percent.” That sovereign voice signalled to the politicians that the UK did not want to be a part of the bureaucratic body called the EU.The sovereign voice did not ask that all ties with the 27 European states be terminated, that all trading links be severed or that the UK should isolate itself from the world of real politick.

The EU bureaucracy has made its position crystal clear, which is that the UK must suffer for its decision to leave and politicians of every hue who stood on election manifestos pledging to honour the referendum result have conspired with the EU to thwart the attempts to leave with a proper deal.

The EU needs to keep us in a vice like grip as in any negotiation they undertake with non EU countries our commercial value to them is paramount.

Des Morgan, Caraway Drive, Swindon

Slap on the wrist

The British Justice system was ( I repeat was ) considered one of the fairest in the world.

In the eyes of the law everyone was considered equal and innocent until proven guilty. The sentence for each breach of the law was also laid out. However this does not seem to be the case any more.

Currently the sentence for any breach of the law appears to depend on the following criteria:- 1.The rich and famous, which also includes MPs, 2. Ethnic minorities and migrants, 3. Those illegal immigrants who can set foot on British soil or rescued by a British ship and brought to Britain ( who are then given aid to fight deportation ) and 4. The majority of the population who do their best to uphold the law.

It is absolutely pointless for the Government to pass laws which are not upheld. The police find it pointless to take people to court when they know the judges and magistrates will only give the criminal a slap on the wrist and say: “ You are really a good person and I am sure you will not offend again so I am giving you your 40th chance.”

And that is our justice system today.

Mr D N Simpson, Graham Street, Swindon

Brexit farm catastrophe

Wiltshire tenant farmer Minette Batters, who is also the the President of the NFU had this to say at a conference last week.

“I make no apology for saying leaving the EU without a deal would be a catastrophe for British Farming. It has been suggested that this is just scaremongering, that no deal will be manageable. So I want to take a moment to explain why with 38 days until Brexit, no deal is the stuff of nightmares. Secretary of state in a recent radio interview you warned of the dangers of leaving the EU without a deal. You said: ‘Winter is coming’. Well for me as a farmer it’s starting to feel cold. It is absolutely shocking that famers and wider businesses are in this position. Now Britain was told, even assured, that a trade deal would be the easiest in history. That Britain holds all the cards in the negotiations. Well conference, in a few weeks time, if there isn’t a deal with the EU, high export tariffs could effectively mean we have no market for four and a half million lambs. A no deal Brexit could decimate those farms up and down Britain, from our uplands to the Welsh mountains, to the rolling hills and the English lowlands.

I ask the good farmers of North Wiltshire to join us and say No! to No Deal and No! to our most vocal local protagonist of no deal James Gray MP, let’s see the back of him and a long awaited return to good old fashioned liberal sense and sensibility in our Constituency.

Dr Brian Mathew

Liberal Democrat Prospective MP for North Wiltshire