Exclusion of younger voters should mean EU referendum rethink
ROSEMARY Goring (“May rebuffs Sturgeon bid to have Scotland stay in EU”, The Herald, July 21) says that a democratic vote has to be obeyed, a point in normal circumstances, with which no one would disagree. In the case of the EU referendum it can easily be seen why that may not always the correct view.
In the immediate aftermath of the result it was established that the major points made by the Brexiters were false and, as if to prove it, the ringleaders fled the field. This is not like a General Election where the successful party has to abide by its manifesto or it will be found out over the term of the Parliament. Naturally one does not get a second General Election to suit those who did not vote for the winners. However, this may in fact merit further consideration.
As the dust is settling it has been hard, if not impossible, to see any support for Brexit and a great deal of unforeseen and unexplained problems are arising. Apart from a trade deal with Australia little good news has emerged but a great deal of negative positions have appeared that suggest that leaving the EU is a very bad idea.
The fundamental reasons for the European Union were the avoidance of any further European wars and the ease of economic and social relationships between EU countries. These and many other benefits were fully recognised here in Scotland.
The statistic shows that the older generation voted to leave and the younger generation voted to remain. Sixteen-year-olds were not deemed intelligent enough to vote although they are the ones most affected, thus there has to be some doubt about the validity of this “advisory” vote.
The petition for a rethink has already reached more than four million signatures demanding further parliamentary debate and there is still time for a second simple referendum, now with better knowledge and understanding, to confirm the position or otherwise. Nigel Dewar Gibb, 15 Kirklee Road, Glasgow. THE first survey of business activity since Brexit has found that the UK economy shrank at its fastest rate since the 2008 global financial crisis whereas Germany hardly missed a beat.
As expected it was our vital services which were hardest hit but manufacturing is also dropping and the survey suggests our GDP could shrink by 0.4 per cent in the third quarter.
The downturn, manifesting itself in order book cancellations, lack of new orders and the postponement or halting of projects shows the muchmaligned “experts” were right. Dr John Cameron, 10 Howard Place, St Andrews. IN your editorial (“Historians can now wage own battle over Culloden”, The Herald, July 14), you speculate that, had the Jacobites won “it might have been possible to paint it as a proto-European force with a progressive programme”.
Actually, this is nearer the truth than you think.
I believe that the Stewart dynasty promulgated the doctrine of the Divine Right of Kings - that the King was God’s representative on earth, so he was perfectly entitled to rule as an autocrat.
This centralisation of power has quite striking resemblances to the way in which the European Union appears to be accruing increasing powers to itself over the years and is, I suspect, one of the main reasons why 38 per cent of those in Scotland who cast their ballots in the recent referendum voted to leave. Christopher W Ide 25, Riverside Road, Waterfoot, East Renfrewshire.