Is the UK grown up enough to survive outside the EU?

If the UK is grown up enough to survive alone, then why, for example, did Britain need the European Union to order it to clean up its dirty beaches and why does Britain need the EU to tell it to improve its air quality?

Like an immature and grubby urchin that needs its mother to constantly wipe its face (... and its bottom), the UK evidently needs its EU “mother” – however imperfect, over-protective or “controlling” she may appear to be at times – to monitor our quality of life.

Despite this, many “Brexiteers” – like a mass uprising of red-faced, cardigan-flapping Alf Garnetts – demand that we “take back control of our country”, as if post-Brexit Britain will, somehow, be governed by millions of these typical pro-leavers from their bungalow control centres.

In reality, of course, it will be led – just as incompetently as before – by British politicians who, no longer obliged by EU law to assure our quality of life, will simply squander the money “saved” – instead of protecting the environment.

When our coastline reverts to being covered in filth and the air we breathe is even more toxic than it is now, future generations will be truly mystified at how Britain was dragged back to its “grubby urchin” status or, as some like to remember it – the “good old days”.

James Hayes-Carter
Cardiff

Kenya has recently made history by nullifying the election results amidst irregularities in the process. It was a historical move which is unheard of in the entire continent.

I hope this will take the country in the right direction and will not lead to instability and chaos.

I wonder why doesn’t the US follow pursuit in doing the same thing and call for another election amidst the endless controversies surrounding the election?

I think that is the best way forward in rectifying the wrong and clearing the clouds of ambiguities, irregularities and the alleged foreign country’s involvement in the process.

If Mueller conclude that some parties have played dirty games which we have been accustomed back home in Africa during the election then the best approach I think it suitable in dealing with the situation is to call for a rematch

Abubakar N Kasim
Toronto, Ontario

I feel I really must come to the defence of poor Boris Johnson and his use of statistics. He is a highly intelligent man educated in Classics at one of the world’s leading universities. It is surely unfair to criticise him if he reveals his numerate ignorance and gets his figures wrong from time-to-time. Else we must assume he is duplicitous and deliberately misleading us. Surely, that cannot be true?

Tim Rubidge
Salisbury

In your brief article on the plans of Glasgow District Council to seize inadequate housing from its landlords, there was an important omission.

This action, which is long overdue, comes as a result of the newly elected SNP Council taking charge of the City. A point worth noting given the link, and your link, to the First Minister. The Labour Party has held power in the Glasgow for generations and yet had failed to act in these matters. I wonder why?

Iona Easton
Glasgow

Imagine a rich father whose adult children fall on hard times – except one, a son, who happens to be a multi-millionaire.

Imagine if the parent ignored the desperate straits of his poverty-stricken children and, instead, kept giving extortionate sums of money to his already affluent son.

Too ridiculous to be true?

Then why, at a time of “vital” austerity cuts is the government still pumping millions into the staggeringly rich Royal Family?

Toby T Brewster
Cardiff

Boris Johnson not only shares a birthplace (New York) with Donald Trump, he shares a weird blond mop and an ability to make the most outrageous and fallacious statements.

He is upset so many think he lied in the referendum campaign but the fact is he has “form” having been fired for lying as a journalist (Times) and as a political aide (Michael Howard).

Repeating the calumny about an NHS bung of £350m a week is deplorable because far from regaining control of such a sum, we are likely to make a net fiscal loss from Brexit.

As the government has adopted numbers and forecasts which undermine his spurious sum, “The Boris” now appears to be either economically moronic or wholly duplicitous.

Rev Dr John Cameron
St Andrews