Readers' letters - January 5

Ringo Starr has been awarded an knighthood

It’s that time of year again. Someone has the dubious honour of making a list out of people who “deserve”to be honoured for just about anything they’ve “achieved”in their life. In my opinion, some deserved, some not.But whoever decided Ringo Starr should be given one wants their head looking at. After many years of fans paying for his lifestyle and wealth, he had the cheek to post on his website, on October 17, 2008, the following statement: “Please stop pestering me from Monday as I will no longer be signing autographs because it’s taking up too much of my time. “Any fan mail received after this date will be binned”.Well, thank you Mr Starr for your gratitude to the people who supported you over the years. I presume your time is more precious than all your fans’ time. They queued to see you and to say you will bin all fan mail you received after the deadline, you should be ashamed. It’s a pity you didn’t bin the letter informing you about your honour.Think yourself lucky. You already have one gong. Do us all a favour and refuse this one so we won’t have to see your smug face on TV and in the press.Perhaps you could let the Queen know it will take up too much of your presumably precious time to attend the ceremony and that any more mail from her will be binned. DMvia email

brexitIs the UK really better than EU? A note to the shouty Brexiteers who were sold a pup by liars and confidence tricksters ...oh, and now it seems, Russian interference too! Still, they can’t possibly admit to that, so we’ll all have to persist in this spiteful train crash. Oh, I forgot, we’re not allowed to query anything, regardless of the fact that every five years we ARE permitted to change our minds about who governs us. Brexiteers must never be questioned. That is the New Religion. They have a point: one single point. There’s too many people in UK already. We need fewer, not more. That aside, politically, they tell us we’re going to “take back control”. That must be from the ELECTED European Parliament I suppose. We’re going to recover our ‘Beautiful British Democracy’.Ah yes, that would be the democracy in which:The fundamental idea is superior position by heredity (royalty and aristocracy).And we have: An elected House in which huge numbers of voters are ignored because their parties achieve only a miniscule number of seats.A voting system which ensures the rigid continuation of vested interests (Big Money, Big Banks, Big Business, and Big Unions who resist any change that discomforts their members). All at the expense of anyone trying to advance reform, justice and fairness.Government by QUANGOs, the leaders of which are nearly all the result of patronage. Nobody has heard of them, they usually keep a low profile, probably because they are overpaid and ineffectual.A sort of ‘Senate’ (House of Lords), which is vastly overpopulated by political placemen appointees and jobsworths, plus some hereditary peers and bishops of the ‘official’ state religion.A democracy in which only about half the electorate bothers to vote. Hence a minority of activists achieve the right to impose their will on the whole nation. We can do much better, I think. We have always had the power to restrict immigration from all but EU citizens, i.e. the majority of immigrants, but have never done so. We have always had the ability to police our borders but have never properly done so. We have always had the ability to control our own money, and reject the Euro. A fine job we’ve made of it too! The Euro continues to prosper, the pound continues to decline. We’ve always had the power to upgrade our educational achievements to match competitors, but we still trail badly. Why should it change now that we’re going to insulate ourselves from ideas from our neighbours? We’ve had well over 200 years to recognise:The superiority of the US constitution in many things, which was written by ex-Brits.The superiority of many of the ideas of the French Revolution.We’ve had over 70 years to recognise the superiority of the German constitution.We’ve done none of those things. No, we’re Superior Britain, say the Brexiteers.....In Brexiteer Land, nobody has any ideas to cause us to think. Just more of the same old, same old.Nigel Taylorvia email

brexitDemocracy will win through

We are negotiating with the EU which doesn’t want, and cannot afford, us to leave. So as our team overcome one obstacle, they will create another. Nor will they succeed.Our democracy in our nation will win through.William GilsonLeyland