Remainers need to get behind country UK CAN THRIVE ON OWN
A FEW weeks ago you published two letters from people dishing Brexit.
I responded, supporting the country’s decision to leave the EU, but I was not surprised to see that my letter was not published.
I see that another remoaner, Mr B Rideau, had pride of place on your letters pages last week with massive headlines about the Brexit disaster.
It’s now five years since we voted to leave the EU, the major reason being the workings of the unelected, bureaucratic and ponderous EU.
I think that this decision has been more than vindicated by, among other things, seeing the EU’s useless Covid vaccine purchasing strategy and roll-out, plus a sly attempt to use the Northern Irish Protocol to block vaccine movement, which rapidly backfired.
We still love our European friends as much as do the populations of Norway and Switzerland who decided not to join the EU, when they had the opportunity, and welcome the five million plus EU passport holders who want to stay in our country.
Come on, Mr Rideau, don’t be such a bad loser, and get behind our country’s efforts in this brave new world.
Tony Gadd, address supplied
PENSIONS UNDER THREAT
CONSERVATIVE Chancellor Sunak is reportedly considering abandoning the triple lock on state pensions, which means the annual increase is linked to highest of the increase in earnings, inflation or 2.5%.
He is responding to concerns which could well come from his own side, as he considers the increase related to earnings may be too high.
The Conservatives have form on this,
Labour introduced a link between earnings and the state pension in the 1970s, the Conservatives abolished it in the 1980s, only to have Labour reintroduce it in the 2007 Pensions Act.
Theresa May tried to abolish it again in the 2017 General Election, but found this a policy so unpopular that she lost her majority in Parliament.
Now, even though the Tories promised to keep the triple lock in their 2019 election manifesto, they are trying again, using the recovery from Covid as a convenient excuse. To add some context, the saving is about one tenth of the amount this Tory Government wasted on the failed Track and Trace programme.
It is not as though pensioners can afford to lose this money. This week has seen the publication of a report indicating pensioner poverty is on the rise again, with two million pensioners currently in poverty in the UK.
And in any event, the UK’s state pension is not generous by international standards.
An increase this year would not only benefit current pensioners, but generations to come.
Far better, as Labour proposes, to retain the link to earnings, but to use the tax system to recoup some of the money from high earners.
But fairness is not something that seems to come easily to a Tory chancellor reputed to be the richest person in the House of Commons.
Ian Gibson Address supplied
I WAS interested in the views of Mr Rideau with regard to the
European Union referendum and Brexit.
Like most Remainers, he unleashes a bitter and savage attack on his own country, its politicians, its media and its voters, and presents a biased and pessimistic view of our future.
He says not one word about the disadvantages of the tyrannical, undemocratic and suffocating EU, with its endless regulations, laws and red tape, forced upon its members by unelected commissioners and a puppet parliament.
We hear nothing about the consequences of remaining in such a disastrous organisation, and nothing about its vicious reaction to our exit, and its attempts to punish us for our democratic decision.
Let us look ahead with determination and confidence, and prove that a sovereign, independent UK is able to thrive and prosper, as we make our own laws, and build our own future.
David Hutton, address supplied
CYCLISTS SAFETY SUPPORT
THE theory of everything means everything has a beginning and an end.
When will poverty and violence end?
It’s said that the industrial revolution kick-started climate change.
And the killing of George Floyd kick-started the Black Lives Matter movement, and taking the knee to stamp out racism.
What about Cyclists’ Lives Matter?
Countless people cycle because of poverty.
With over 100 innocent (UK) cyclists being killed every year, we have an army of not-right drivers, saying: “They had it coming, they don’t pay road tax; they jump red lights, and ride three and four abreast.”
Aren’t today’s kids facing a terrible future? Like cancer, we have many types of hate crime. For me, a lifelong cyclist, the hating of zero-emission cyclists is worst.
If ‘speed merchants’ Sir Lewis Hamilton and Sir Chris Hoy, plus Sir Bradley Wiggins and the NHS, were to stand up and say: “Speed limits are maximum, not minimum,” it would surely accelerate the reduction, if not the end, of road death, air pollution, hate crime, and global warming.
Allan Ramsay Address supplied