Let’s save world
Just at the very time we need to be taking urgent national and international action to curb climate change, our politicians in Westminster are wasting time and energy arguing about a Brexit that we neither need nor want (according to recent opinion polls).
Brexit is an important issue, of course, but unchecked and out-of-control climate change threatens our whole way of life and the future of the human race. Already, climate change is making life very unpleasant for many people in other parts of the world, but its effects are starting to touch us all. Unchecked, it will begin to impact on world food production, and eventually threaten our whole economic and social system.
Opinion polls are showing that the majority of the UK population now want to remain in the EU. It is time for some sensible, courageous national politicians to put their heads above the parapet and say, “stop this whole process – we can see it will be disastrous, and the people no longer want it.”
If the majority of MPS across all parties who support remaining in the EU agree to work together, “the (2018) will of the people” could be served. Would we need another referendum? If so, let’s have one, and soon. We have had two years of hearing the issues, so there would be no need for long campaigns, financed by vested interests. Just a simple quick vote to confirm what we, the people, want.
It is a bit rich for SNP MP Ian Blackford to accuse Jeremy Corbyn of a total betrayal of working people (your report, 20 August).
Yes, Labour do not want to remain in the customs union or single market, but they want to be in a customs union with the EU and they want to be aligned with the single market. Labour wants to be free of some of the restrictions, which might, for example, prevent the renationalisation of the railways, or force the continued privatisation of the NHS.
No, if Ian Blackford wants a betrayal, he needs to look closer to home. As soon as the SNP said in their manifesto that a vote to leave the EU was grounds for another referendum, that was the end of Nicola Sturgeon campaigning strongly for a vote to Remain.
Had she done so, and more SNP voters had chosen to Remain, instead of voting Leave, as a protest vote to kick the Tories or to further their desire for independence, the result would have been much closer and we would not be in the mess we are now.
Ian Blackford says Labour wants a hard Brexit. Nonsense, Labour wants to see a growing economy, an education service that delivers training and skills, and the public services that people need – something that the SNP have singularly failed to deliver in Scotland during the last 11 years they have been in power.
PHIL TATE Craiglockhart Road, Edinburgh