Why I have resigned from the Labour Party

WITH a heavy heart, I have made the decision to leave the Labour Party.

It’s a decision that will make very little difference to anyone other than myself, but it is a big one nevertheless.

The Labour Party has been a family that took me in, gave me friendship and a cause to fight for.

It put fire in my belly, and showed me that here was a great mass of individuals who cared, who would fight for fair play, who would stand up for those in need, who would do the right thing whatever the cost.

It has been my social life, my community, and sometimes my livelihood. I have supported, campaigned, knocked on doors, held offices, stood for election and sometimes been elected. I’ve been a worker.

But no more.

The Labour Party has been broken, by a man whose fanatical zeal is confined to his personal ambition and a stubborn refusal to accept that he is not the man for this mighty job.

And he has been allowed to do it by the ugly growth of an angry mob who takes its power from his reliance on them.

It breaks my heart.

Labour will recover. In what form, I don’t know, but it will. In time.

But my time is precious, and I won’t waste it waiting. I can no longer support the party that Labour has become, fight for it, defend it, promote it.

I will watch from the sidelines, because I refuse to keep quiet, because I’m “too honest for my own good” as I have been told on a number of occasions.

Thank you to all my many friends within the party.

I hope we can remain so, even when my membership card is torn up.

Goodbye and good luck.

It’s been a blast! Alana Davies Porthcawl

Swim for free

I strongly agree with Gill Irwin’s criticism of the Welsh Government amd the so-called “Better” social enterprise swimming programme.

I am 81, trebly disabled, needing assistance at home, as well as the hoist to lift me into the pool.

My GPs and consultants are pleased I am able to swim once a week because I have walking difficulties.

It is unbelievable that I can only swim “free” Wednesdays 9.3011am, especially when I need help to get there.

Of course I can swim at other times and days for £4.50!

Another nail in the coffin of the elderly and disabled!

Jacqui Gasson

Caerau, Cardiff

The closure of a city institution

MANY of your readers will not be aware of a proposal to close an institution which has been at the heart of the city for almost a century and a half. St Albans primary school, for many years next to the church in Splott before moving to Tremorfa, has educated thousands of children from a working class community contributing so much to the life blood of the city.

The most worrying thing about the proposal is that it is being closed at the request of the Catholic Archdiocese of Cardiff, with one of the major reasons being falling numbers of Catholic children.

I may stand corrected, but would imagine that there aren’t many religions of any denomination who aren’t facing falling numbers, particularly after 10 years of austerity.

Does the Catholic Archdiocese have a plan to close all of its Catholic schools on the pretence of falling numbers?

Are the churches next on the list? It is an ill thought out issue, with a poor attempt to hide it in the brilliant news from the council that Willows High and Baden Powell are to have brand new schools.

The proposal is out for consultation, and there is overwhelming opposition to removing a primary school from one of the poorest wards in the city.

Anyone wanting to stop the closure, especially all past pupils, should sign the petition at Change. org or more importantly attend the public meeting at the Tremorfa school at 6.30pm on Wednesday October 2.

Do something for our children’s futures.

John Houlston

Save St Albans School Committee

England and Scotland border

ALL the time spent on trying to sort out the Irish border “backstop” question may not have been wasted.

Nicola Sturgeons insistence that she will keep Scotland in the EU if Brexit goes through will almost certainly mean a hard border between England and Scotland.

Still keen to leave now, Scotland?. At least we now have something to look forward to!

Ron Boyce

Cardiff

The majority voted to leave the EU

WHEN I was young, many years ago, the days when Harold Wilson was elected Prime Minister, I regarded the Labour Party as a party for the people.

But now the Labour Party are proclaiming they want another referendum with the hope that Brexit will be killed off, irrespective of the fact that the majority of the electorate who participated in the 2016 referendum chose to leave, and one of the strongest areas voting leave was Wales, yet the Welsh Labour party are committed to remain in the EU. Isn’t that going against the will of the Welsh electorate?

Two of my uncles were killed in action in World War 2, one serving in the Royal Navy, and the other in the British Army, they fought for to keep our country free, and now a bunch of career politicians want to give it away to foreign nations, the European Union.

I think Thomas Desmond Fitzgerald, and George Fitzgerald are turning in their graves.

Lyndon George Fitzgerald Morgan Gelli, Rhondda

Appeal against decision to EU

I refer to the report that the proroguing of parliament was unlawful (Wales Online, September 24).

Having a Masters of Laws in European Union Law, I believe the Supreme Court was mistaken. Whilst they are right to say proroguing Parliament had the effect of preventing Parliament from debating

The Labour Party has been broken, by a man whose fanatical zeal is confined to his personal ambition and a stubborn refusal to accept that he is not the man for this mighty job

Alana Davies Porthcawl

Brexit, I do not believe this was frustrating Parliament.

I believe Boris Johnson should have prorogued Parliament up to and including October 31 2019 in order to prevent Parliament from breaching EU Law due to its Speaker acting in a dysfunctional manner by breaching standing orders to allow Parliament to pass a law in breach of Article 50, which the Queen or a member of her Palace also had to assent to.

Article 50 says a deal must be made after Brexit, not before. Parliament has passed an illegal law to the contrary.

The agreement to extend Brexit day to October 31 2019 said there should be no re-opening of the withdrawal agreement, in opposition to that law.

As EU Law still has supremacy of UK Law, if I were Boris Johnson I would appeal the decision of the Supreme Court to ignore article 50 and the extension agreement by not taking this fact into account to the Court of Justice of the EU.

By the time the CJEU gets around to making a decision, October 31 2019 might have passed and the will of the British people to leave the EU would be implemented, including giving full sovereignty back to the UK Parliament, which MPs seem not to want other than by breaking standing orders in order to break EU Law.

Cllr Jonathan Bishop Community councillor for Nantgarw

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