I want to grow up outside the EU superstate
As A young person, I’m very interested in politics and hope we vote to leave the EU. I’ve done a lot of research, and the thought of staying in the EU makes me feel very claustrophobic.
The unelected, unaccountable EU leaders have said they intend the EU to become a political superstate. so it saddens me to think of the millions who sacrificed their lives and went through hell to save their country’s independence.
I know that we could have democracy and could live in a peaceful world and trade globally — without being trapped in the EU superstate .
When I ask pro-EU people why they think we should stay in the EU, they say it is for economic reasons. But how can the EU possibly be economically beneficial to Britain when we’re forced to pay more than £ 350 million of tax payers’ money to it every week?
We haven’t even been told what that money is spent on, and if we left the EU, that money could be used to build a new NHs hospital every week.
If that argument doesn’t convince you that we should leave, look at Greece and other countries in southern Europe — they certainly haven’t benefited economically from staying in the EU.
If you’re scared to vote ‘Leave’ — which is understandable with all the pro-EU propaganda — just bear in mind that if we vote to stay in, there will be no going back, the EU spider will have caught us in its web, and however much we struggle and regret, we won’t be let out.
so, please, vote Leave on June 23 for the sake of Britain, for yourselves and for future generations. FREYA LAIDLOW-PETERSEN, 14,
Walmer, Kent.
MEP gravy train
Watching Jeremy Paxman’s excellent TV programme about the EU, I was intrigued to learn that every month MEPs from all 28 member countries are required to pack all their papers, laptops, etc, and make a four-hour journey from Brussels to strasbourg.
This, apparently, costs £100 million a year and will continue to do so unless the EU changes the arrangement — which it won’t.
I find it hard to believe we obediently go along with this ludicrous financial arrangement. It could be remedied on June 23, saving us a great deal of money.
H. MAGEE, Rode Heath, Staffs.
Home truths
I LIVE in Lincolnshire, which doesn’t have a housing problem. I left London when I retired and bought a large house with land for the price of a small house in Kent.
House prices here have hardly moved, and a young couple who both work can easily afford a decentsize house to start married life.
The village I moved to is three miles from the market town of caistor. It has a long- established grammar school which is in the country’s top 100 state schools.
It is also just five miles to the nearest station, from which trains will get you to London in two-anda-half hours. It is near the awardwinning Humberside Airport, and there is the beautiful countryside and the sea not far away.
I cannot understand why house prices do not rise here, but it’s good news for the young people of Lincolnshire and anyone else who comes to live here.
Mrs C. YORKE, Grasby, Lincs.
Come clean!
THANK you for exposing the ridiculous nature of the whole ‘wellness’ obsession in whose grip we are, thanks to people such as those ‘food gurus’, the Hemsley sisters (Mail).
I’ve been a fitness and nutrition coach for 16 years. I used to be a ‘clean eater’ myself: I thought sugar was evil and was taught that gluten was the devil incarnate. I sprouted this Hemsley- esque rubbish for years until I got ill and realised the ‘cleaner’ I ate, the worse I felt. I was having anxiety attacks, my health was declining and I was in the grip of orthorexia (the ‘clean’ eating disorder).
It isn’t just the ‘wellness warriors or the obsession with labelling foods as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ that fuel my determination to be a voice of reason — it’s the core driver of these ideas, the unrelenting pressure to be skinny.
I nearly left my career because all I could see was how it was making the nation’s confidence worse.
An industry that was once responsible for restoring confidence now creates more anxiety, eating disorders, crises of confidence and fears about food than ever before.
I decided not to leave because I wanted to be part of the solution. I took a year out and wrote a book.
My mission is to be a voice of truth for women caught up in this obsession. We need to take back control of our self-worth for our own sake and those who follow us.
HEATHER J. WYNN, Macclesfield, Cheshire.
No job joy at 62
Of THE women who said being made redundant in later life was the best thing that had happened to them (Mail), four had had highpowered positions, making it easier for them to become self-employed in a new career.
The one who had an ordinary job had the hardest time, but found work through a friend of a friend. sadly, that’s the only way for most women to gain new employment.
I took ‘voluntary redundancy’ at 62. As I am single, I hadn’t wanted this, but my employer wasn’t interested in employing over-60s.
I’ve applied for clerical jobs — twice to a well-known High street store — but have got nowhere.
Luckily, I have a work pension as well as my state pension, so I’m not exactly on my uppers, but I would love a part-time job to finance the holidays I used to have.
I had breast cancer last year and it made me realise I’ve still got a life to live — and that costs money.
It’s hard for a woman in her 50s or 60s to get an ordinary job unless you want to clean or care, which I don’t. We don’t all have the funds or contacts to become self-employed.
JUNE MUSKETT, Norwich.
Hidden talent
I’M VERY concerned about the lack of clothes worn by the female judges on Britain’s Got Talent. from behind, they appear naked, and the scraps of material they wear barely cover their chests.
I’m an open-minded, 41-year-old solicitor, but this show is watched by young impressionable girls, including my eight-year-old daughter
I accept the need for celebrities to have a certain image, but I’m concerned that while the males are smartly dressed and suitably covered, the women are half-naked and very thin.
I want my daughter to grow up happy in her healthy body rather than feel that, to be attractive, she has to take off most of her clothes and aspire to an airbrushed version of an average woman.
The female judges are successful women: they shouldn’t need to be so scantily dressed on prime-time TV: it’s sexist and degrading — little better than having Benny Hill chasing half-naked women around. MADELINE SEIBERT,
Loughton, Essex.
Swiss health jackpot
THE problems in the NHs are all about money. We lived in switzerland for 22 years where the health service is financed entirely through private insurance.
The hospitals are superb, with no shortage of modern equipment. There’s virtually no wait to see a GP, to have diagnostic scans or an operation. But this quality of health care comes at a price.
As a couple with average level cover, we paid a premium of about 1,000 swiss francs a month, the equivalent of about £600.
for a rough comparison, you’d have to divide this figure by about two, as average salaries in switzerland are about double those in the United Kingdom.
so, a couple in the UK would have to pay about £300 a month to have the same level of care and facilities as in switzerland.
This comparison is simplistic, but it surely indicates just how underfunded the NHs is. Dr DENNIS DELL, Aylesbury, Bucks.
Sour note
THERE’s little comparison between the voices of frank sinatra and Adele (Letters). There was precious little range in sinatra’s voice, whereas Adele can sing across a huge range.
sinatra once said of Londoner Matt Monro that he was ‘the only Limey who could sing’.
Well, I reckon frank was the yank who couldn’t! DAVID EDWARDS, Leighton Buzzard, Beds.