Readers' letters

There is a need to explain more to Bernard Derbyshire as he is unable to understand my questions to Theresa May regarding the decline in our living standards through austerity cuts (LEP October 13).

The answer of course to his comment there was ‘no money left’ in the Treasury in 2010 was due to the dislocations in the foreign exchange swap markets between the US dollar and major European companies.

This complex picture is associated with the subprime mortgage scandal that gave credit for mortgages that borrowers could not service.

After the failure of Lehman brothers in 2008, credit worthiness of more investment banks were affected. This was consistent with the deepening of the US dollar liquidity problem, making it a global financial crisis, as banks in Britain collapsed.

In 2008 Lehman brothers filed for bankruptcy with a $639bn debt, the largest in history. As a large investment bank, its collapse was catastrophic, having 25,000 employees worldwide. Its demise, connected to the subprime mortgage-induced financial crisis, contributed to the erosion of close to $10 Trillion from global equity markets, the biggest monthly decline on record.

We then had the collapse of Northern Rock Bank, which had been involved with subprime mortgages affecting major investment banks. The UK was not exempt from a run on the banks.

Many UK investments were affected, particularly our pension funds.

It soon proved that the banks had been negligent in their investment capital dealings and subsequent cover-ups.

Within the banking crisis, it was necessary to protect pension funds and bail out some banks to save the economy and these investments. The cause was justifiable, although the Conservatives sought wrongly, for political motives, to condemn the Labour Government. So Mr Derbyshire, I hope you can appreciate that it was the greedy bankers that wrecked the world economy.

Marjorie Nye via email

There’s no need to leave union

Theresa May is grossly exceeding any mandate that she has from the EU referendum vote. The vote on June 23 was advisory – it was not mandatory.

There was and is no obligation on the Government to precipitate headlong into Brexit.

To amend the US Constitution requires a two-thirds majority in Congress and amendments have to be ratified by three-quarters of the states.

This is setting the bar high.

That there was no such setting of the bar for the EU referendum is evidence that it was to be advisory only.

The fact that it was advisory was known at the time, but little mentioned.

The result on June 23 was 52 to 48 per cent for leaving the EU. A wafer-thin majority. Almost certainly there is “buyers’ remorse” on the part of at least four per cent of those who voted “Out” and a re-run today would see the result reversed.

Article 50 has not yet been triggered, but already there are clear signs of significant economic damage. Not to mention the political disruption of the work of the remaining EU.

In 50 years’ time, historians will be shaking their heads in disbelief at the folly that is being perpetrated in the name of an advisory outcome.

John Cole, address supplied

Brexit should mean out now

With regard to the oft-trundled out “Brexit means Brexit” phrase. June 23, 2016, was divorce day. Divorcees are not forced to co-habit for three years after decree nisi so what is going on behind closed doors?

Brexit means out now.

Trev Bromby via email

‘Concerns over leukaemia link’

I read the letter, Nuclear reality is close to us, and I’m concerned about the higher leukaemia rates near Sellafield (LEP October 3).

The Department of Health has released its ‘Review of Childhood Cancer Incidence near Sellafield & Dounreay.’

In the 1980s, the families of 19 children with leukaemia, living within 20 miles of Sellafield, took the site operators to court, but they lost the case as the judge ruled that the radiation dose to the public from the plant was too low to cause leukaemia.

Successive governments try to explain the higher leukaemia rates near Sellafield by saying that exposure to a common unidentified infection, through population mixing, results in child leukaemia.

But Dr Paul Dorfman, secretary to UK governmental scientific advisory Committee Examining Radiation Risks from Internal Emitters (CERRIE), an acknowledged expert on radiation risk, says that he is “of the clear opinion that the acknowledged significant increase in childhood leukaemia in Cumbria is associated with radiation releases.”

However, the view of the UK governmental radiation risk scientific advisory body (COMPARE) is that the Cumbrian childhood leukaemia excess is most likely associated with population mixing.

Thus the Government should inform the local community to expect a potential increase in risk of childhood leukaemia following the building of the planned nuclear facility at Moorside.

Nuclear power pioneer Dr John Gofman said that the evidence on radiation causing cancer is beyond doubt as “radiation produces cancer”.

Name and address supplied

Bus pass seems so pointless

I feel so helpless out here in Wray since all the bus cuts. I just wonder what is the point of me having a free bus pass when there are hardly any buses.

I think a lot of pensioners would agree that they would rather pay something towards a good bus service rather than have a free very bad one. I am being forced to use my car more which adds to the volume of traffic locally and doesn’t help the environment.

Bring back our buses.

Anne Midgley, Wray