Readers' letters - July 4

Challenging facts over EU
BAE Systems, manufacturer of the Eurofighter, is a UK success story, according to one readerBAE Systems, manufacturer of the Eurofighter, is a UK success story, according to one reader
BAE Systems, manufacturer of the Eurofighter, is a UK success story, according to one reader

Someone really ought to take the internet off your correspondent C Fazackerley or at the very least show him how to work Google (letters July 1).

With the use of a search engine he could check some of the facts from the list of businesses he has cut and paste off social media.

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Without wishing to take over the whole of your letters page, here are just a few facts for C Fazackerley to consider picked from his letter.

Jaguar Land Rover was last month named Britain’s Manufacturer of the Year at the Made in the UK Awards. Production at its Halewood plant on Merseyside is at record levels after a £600m investment over the past five years. This success story is largely underpinned by EU funding and employs 4,000 skilled workers.

It is true some UK airports are owned by a Spanish company but the majority are not.

Here in the north west, for example, Manchester Airport is owned by the councils of Greater Manchester while Liverpool Airport is one of four owned by UK company Peel Holdings and was expanded thanks to the £2bn EU funding set aside for Merseyside.

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If the Minis David Cameron was pictured in front of were indeed made in Holland or Austria then they must have been hastily taken apart, shipped back to England and placed on the production line at the firm’s Oxford plant for the photo shoot.

An Oxford plant which employs around 3,000 people and remains Mini’s main production hub.

Dyson did indeed move to Malaysia 13 years ago but this was not the decision of the EU, it was the decision of Brexit supporting owner Sir James Dyson to move hundreds of jobs from this country overseas to a lower wage economy.

Indeed the decision to move many of those businesses abroad highlighted by C Fazackerley will have been made not by politicians in Brussels but by businessmen and women who had the option of staying and investing in the UK and chose not to.

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It is them who his ire would be best turned on especially those utilities he highlights which were sold off by the Tories and ended up in foreign hands.

It is this sort of fast and loose, cut and paste of the facts C Fazackerley demonstrates which so poisoned the EU debate with lies and disinformation.

Finally as to his challenge to name one major technology company still running in the UK. How about Lancashire’s largest private sector employer BAE Systems?

M Roberts, Fulwood

Action needed on filthy mess

On the unadopted road between the Consevative Club and YMCA buildings off Berry Lane, in Longridge, there are several black bin liners that have just been dumped next to the iron gate on the YMCA side where a poster says don’t dump, donate, recycle, reduce landfill.

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They have been there for several months and possibly may contain waste food and other perishable goods.

Do they belong to certain people living in the flats above? If so does Ribble Valley Council not provide waste bins, I assume they pay council tax the same as everyone else.

If the rubbish is not from the flats where has it come from have we got fly tippers now. I would suggest a visit from environmental health is in order. To make the situation worse dirty waste water from one of the flats is dropping immediately on to the rubbish below as the pipe is broken and has become disconnected from the main downspout. Someone needs to take responsibility.

On a separate issue I am becoming increasingly concerned about motorist complete disreguard for parking in the village in particular on footpaths and on double yellow lines.

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Regulations don’t seem to matter any more Won’t be long before a serious accident happens as a result.

Steven Malley, via email

No mandate to speak for me

I have just read the letter from Paul Nuttall, (letters June 29), and his idea we must move forward together and thanking his voters for ignoring the “Project Fear.” What on earth does he mean when he states we must move forward together? Does he really understand nearly half the country is excluded from his idea of together? His obnoxious party, together with Johnson, Gove and company, have told lie after lie to obtain this so called mandate.

I wonder if Boris has read the maxim from the greatest propagandist of all time, Josef Goebbels, who together with Hitler managed to hoodwink 80 per cent of the German people.

“If you give simple answers to complex questions and repeat them often enough, people believe them.” It would seem that is what has happened here. Oh, for a politician in the mould of Nicola Sturgeon instead of the weak and so called wonderful ones here.

Keith D Swift, Ribchester

Message for EU workers here

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I am writing on behalf of all those people in Lancashire and throughout the UK who voted ‘Remain’ in the EU referendum.

My message is intended for all those guest workers who live in our county and elsewhere who do so much to help our basic services, enrich our society and improve our social lives.

I am married to a Bulgarian, have two dual nationality children, one of whom is about to start university in Holland, I have both worked with and employed guest workers and attend a NHS dental clinic completely staffed by them, as a past development officer for the Local District Sports Council I have dealt with many European sporting associations from our twin towns and helped to organise the International Youth Games with them. I am extremely concerned the result to leave the EU will give those mentioned the impression we don’t want them and resent their presence here and indeed many have said that for the first time they feel unwanted here which I find intolerable. On the contrary, all those who voted ‘Remain’ ( and I’m sure many who did not) value them very highly indeed personally, socially and vocationally and we would be mortified if they felt otherwise.

We love you, value you and want you to stay.

Dr Neil Wigglesworth, Forton

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