Give peerages to all the rich, selfish celebrity Brexiteers

Unlike many commentators, I unreservedly welcome the peerage bestowed upon former cricketer, Ian Botham. To be ever known now as: Lord Botham of Brexitland. I must also go a step further in this direction and request that our proxy prime minister arranges honours (Sirs, Dames, Lords etc.) for many more Brexit-backing celebrities, be they sportspeople, rock stars, or actors.

Then in years to come when we are firmly ensconced in the economic second division, when we have no NHS to speak of, lorry parks are considered normal, and Scotland is prospering as an independent nation within the EU, it shall be impossible to forget which selfish rich celebrities backed this crazy plan to inflict economic sanctions on their own country.

Robert Boston Kingshill, Kent

NHS for sale

Our NHS and other care facilities are a jewel in any trade negotiations. If we were to continue to be a member of the EU it would cease to be a target of plunderers.

My feeling is that future monies and improvements to the NHS have to allow it to stop using private hospital assistance, improve services and facilities, develop quicker, cheaper and more reliable testing procedures, retrain staff that fall below the required standards and employ staff that care about patient needs.

Whether the NHS is or is not on offer in future trade negotiations would be irrelevant if we were to see sense and withdraw from the Brexit debacle. Additionally, Britain would be financially more secure and our children’s future more assured. Jobs and trade would quickly get back to pre-Brexit levels and, more importantly, Britain would not have to lose the hard won benefits gained over the past generations.

A major reason countries outside the EU want to deal with us, set-up businesses here and buy our companies is that we have a very large trading infrastructure readily available and English speaking. We also offer financial packages through a world-renowned banking system which has provided specialist support for hundreds of years – known and trusted.

Enacting Brexit will, without doubt, offer up our NHS to the highest bidder especially with the charlatans, know-nothings and liars we have running the government aided by unscrupulous businesses. Just look at the mess Mr Johnson and his cohorts have made of governance so far – and we’ve got at least another four years of their inept, arrogant ministrations.

If we stopped Brexit, we could concentrate on the demise of Covid-19 – that’s where we ought to be putting all our efforts. Improving our standing in the world and our future must be paramount rather than dragging

Britain down into uncharted waters.

Keith Poole Basingstoke

Correct response from Labour

I read Andrew Woodcock’s article (No 10 must lead the global virus response, Labour says, News, yesterday). This instruction is coming from the Labour Party and is the correct one. The government is always proclaiming that it wants to be a global player and this is the ultimate opportunity, for once, in this dire pandemic, to be judged “world class”.

Gordon Brown did indeed lead the response to the financial crisis and it is now up to Rishi Sunak and Dominic Raab to stand up to the plate. I have some faith in the former who has shown acumen and a plausible economic approach to this crisis. It is time to cut through all the mixed messaging this poor beleaguered country has been subjected to, and show leadership and generosity to the rest of the world. For that is where Britain will be judged and ultimately found wanting by other struggling countries, if it shrugs its shoulders and by not proactively engaging.

This will send an isolationist message out, loud and clear, that it is not Britain’s problem, when it plainly needs to show international responsibility.

Judith A Daniels Address supplied Wildlife appeal

Can I please fully endorse Penny Little’s plea to dedicate your Christmas appeal to ending the wildlife trade, and with particular emphasis on ending the bear bile trade in Asia.

In the years I have supported animal charities, never have I encountered such horror as reading the correspondence from the charities trying to help them. A synthetic alternative is available, but as with a great deal of Chinese medicine, natural remedies are preferred.

The only ray of light is the very thing that started coronavirus. Animal to human contamination. If they will not end the trade on ethical grounds, maybe this horrible disease will persuade them.

Lynn Brymer Ashford, Kent

Which Christmas?

Boris Johnson is absolutely right in stating that the country (England) should return to “normal by Christmas”. He is, of course, equally his normally sly self in omitting to define which year’s Christmas he means.

Alistair Vincent London

Science scapegoat

How often have we heard the phrase “guided by the science” and thought, “here is a scapegoat in the making”?

It has emerged that those same scientists told the government that we should have locked down a week before they did. How many avoidable deaths were caused?

Now that the very same scientists are not falling into line with the political ideology of the government, it seems that it is Dominic Cummings who we are to be guided by, and the new scapegoat appears to be Keir Starmer for having the audacity to act as a leader of the opposition, when he should be fully supporting the government’s actions.

Geoff Forward Stirling