Our complacent MPS should be prepared for a political earthquake
SIR – It is evident that Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party is on course to muck out the foul stables of Parliament – and jolly good luck to him (report, May 12).
It is vital that we are rid of those politicians who have, at considerable cost to the country, contrived over three years to stall the delivery of what the EU referendum result demanded. We need fresh faces – people who are able and willing public servants.
Lance Warrington
Northleach, Gloucestershire
SIR – I can understand that, with the Prime Minister’s refusal to implement the referendum result, people are turning against the Conservatives. What I cannot understand is that they appear to want a Labour government.
Have people forgotten that when the Conservatives took power the country was bankrupt? It has taken more than 10 years of hard work to revive the economy. Are voters really prepared to destroy that just to punish the Conservatives? It is essential that Theresa May is replaced quickly by a
true Conservative – one prepared to honour the wishes of the majority and leave the EU without a deal.
Geoffrey Wyartt
Newent, Gloucestershire
SIR – Charles Moore (Comment, May 11) writes that “there is not the faintest evidence he [Nigel Farage] would be any good at running the country”.
Surely this could also be said about Mrs May and her Cabinet? I’d be keen to let Mr Farage have a go.
Valentine Guinness
London W2
SIR – A principle which all MPS must recognise is that this country must fulfil its international obligations. We joined the EEC (forerunner of the EU) 45 years ago and had a referendum to confirm this in 1975. We committed ourselves to the EU at Maastricht, in 1992, subject to the important opt-outs ably negotiated by John Major. And we are bound by the subsequent Lisbon Treaty.
Article 50 of this binds us; and it is
drafted in such a way as to give a country the unilateral right to leave the EU, but it makes it extremely difficult to do so. This was deliberate. Secession from any union of nations, intended to be permanent, is bound to be made difficult by its terms. Everyone learnt at school about the American Civil War.
Article 50 provides for a negotiated exit, but it gives all the negotiating power to the continuing EU. The idea that we, the exiting nation, can demand reasonable terms is misplaced. It is either the EU’S terms or a non-negotiated exit.
MPS should recognise that we have as a nation committed ourselves to all this. With this background comes the ill-judged referendum, and following this the Tories’ manifesto pledge to abide by its result. The net result of this sequence of commitments is that Tory MPS are obliged to go for exiting the EU and to do so on the only terms on offer: Mrs May’s deal.
Sir Martin Jacomb
London W11