Readers' letters

If you have a medical problem, you go to your doctor or a specialist for advice.

Whatever you may think you know, they are the experts. They may be wrong, but they are probably right.

So it is with regard to what is likely to happen if we vote to leave the EU.

It is the job of the Governor 
of the Bank of England to advise as to the likely consequences.

He has warned us that to leave Europe will be disastrous.

So has the Director of the International Monetary Fund.

So for that matter did Vince Cable, who warned us of the coming recession when nobody listened.

And when Paddy Ashdown on a recent Question Time challenged the three Brexiteers on the panel to name one recognised authority who did not take the view that to go out was imperilling our economy, they could not.

Yes, they may all be wrong, but no-one but an idiot would deny that they are probably right.

To vote to leave is at best a gamble.

And it is a gamble with the jobs and livelihoods in particular of our young people.

Much of the fresh industry in the north has come because we are in the EU.

And it can go, if we leave.

But, say the Brexiteers, if we leave, we will be free from EU regulations.

But at least 90 per cent of those regulations were backed by our own Government.

Indeed, we promoted some.

And often when there has been an EU Directive, our Government has extended it to cover a wider field than the EU intended.

And if we leave, we will still be bound by most of the EU rules, without any power to alter them.

Yes, there are things wrong with the EU and we ought to 
be far more active in the EU 
to try to remedy them.

Many of us have relatives who lost their lives fighting to liberate Europe from tyranny in the Second World War.

I am old enough to remember the hope and enthusiasm with which Winston Churchill, in particular, inspired the movement to build a great Common Market which would bind together the nations of Europe and bring an end to repeated wars and destruction.

That hope and enthusiasm is still needed.

So I hope we will vote to remain in the EU.

But that is not enough.

Too long we have sat on the sidelines and not given the lead to reform in Europe.

At the next European elections we should back those who both support the EU and are determined to extend our influence.

John Collins, 
address supplied

Three groups who’re pro-EU

Who exactly is voting ‘to remain in the EU’?

There are only three significant groups:

1) Those who cannot see the realities of the EU but just love the idea of ‘us all working as one’.

In other words, the ‘EU is cuddlesome lobby’. (Great, maybe, if that is what the reality is).

2) The duped.

Those people who listened to the same Europhile deceits, lies and false promises that were made by politicians back in 1975 – and the new generation who are falling for it all over again.

(Well done Europhiles, if it worked then it’s very wise to use it again now!)

3) The fearful.

Those people who have been terrified out of their skins by the scaremongers.

(Well done Europhiles. You have scared the living daylights out of millions.

A real referendum winner!)

June Warner 
via email

Government

makes the rules

It’s the Employment Minister of the UK Government who makes our workers’ rights/laws, not the EU.

From 1974-1979, under old Labour, people had to have worked 13 weeks to claim unfair dismissal at a tribunal. Under Thatcher, the Tories immediately changed this to six months, by June 1980, they made it 12 months, and by May 1984, to two years. Blair’s Government changed this to 12 months, then the Coalition Tory-led Government changed it back to two years.

As for Eastern Europeans doing jobs here, blame any government allowing companies to use overseas agencies or any other foreign national.

This became rife when Blair introduced the minimum wage, with the excuse they can’t get local labour. Our governments allow open-door migration, not the EU. Countries in Eastern Europe in the EU don’t allow it.

S Ellis via email

Shops should have defibs

Shops want to think seriously about obtaining defibrillators in store for customers and staff who have a heart attack and need urgent assistance. The quicker assistance is given the better.

The cost can be paid for by the store’s owners but an appeal could ask customers to contribute towards the cost. Between them, the cost is minimal, but it is priceless if someone is dying and time is urgent.

David Treacher, address supplied

EU can help us resist fracking

Since our elected representatives and the UK Government have no intention of resisting the fracking industry, one of the few defences we will have left is EU Environmental law and the Habitats Directive (1992).

Simon Sweeney,

address supplied

Short-sighted and insane idea

With regard to fracking, it is high time that the whole twisted and detestable idea was consigned to the dustbin of mindless short-sighted insanity for all time.

Martyn L Scargill,

via email