New EU law and government response shows how pointless Brexit has become

Sensibly, the EU has agreed to halt the “posting” of migrant workers to countries such as the UK where they can undercut local people (The EU has just passed a law that could end the problems that caused Brexit in the first place). If there was one factor above all which swung the 2016 referendum, it was that concern (imagined or real): “They’re taking our jobs!”

The question to be asked is not so much what is the point of Brexit now, but why on earth has our government been trying to block that decision if we’re leaving anyway, except maybe that it underscores the fact that Brexit has become even more pointless?

Patrick Cosgrove
Shropshire

I do not recognise the utopian workplace planet on which Sean O’Grady resides. Zero-hours contracts, low wages, lost benefits – I could go on. Talk to those on the minimum wage, talk to those in the building trade who suffer because the authorities do not have the manpower to enforce that minimum wage, but whatever you do, get out of the metropolitan bubble, please.

May I remind him that in those bad old days we had a lower differential between rich and poor, resulting in greater social cohesion. Yes, in the bad old days, strong unions meant higher wages for some; now, it is the bankers and the boardrooms who command wages far higher than a thing dreamed of by the most militant shop steward.

Joanna Pallister
Durham

Your editorial argument for removing academics and students from the immigration numbers cap is irrefutable.

It has been made many times by many people – including Tory cabinet ministers – without anything resembling a coherent refutation coming from the prime minister’s office.

The obvious conclusion many of us will have arrived at is that our prime minister is, quite simply, xenophobic. This may be entirely unfair, but it is surely up to No 10 to make some effort to convince us otherwise.

D Maughan Brown
York

We need to change the NHS narrative. There is no debt – there is only underfunding.

Treating the nation’s sick, injured, suffering and dying – aka being civilised – is the priority. Low taxation has no priority at all.

Steve Ford
Haydon Bridge

Germaine Greer, I used to be an admirer of yours.

The Female Eunuch was a tremendously energising and enjoyable book for me to read when I was a university student many years ago. I also admired your tremendous intelligence, erudition – especially your knowledge of Shakespeare – and wit, and your outspoken confidence in blasting away the subterfuge of the patriarchy and in defence of women’s rights.

Over the years you have said some things that I definitely did not agree with, like your recent remarks about women being large consumers of pornography and therefore encouraging it (which made no sense to me; pornography makes me sick; I think it is deeply anti-feminine and I don’t believe any woman with any self-respect would look at it) – but I still admired you for the qualities I have mentioned.

However, this latest statement of yours, minimising the violence of rape, is sickening – and your convoluted arguments trying to justify your stance are ridiculous.

Genevieve Forde
New Zealand

It is becoming increasingly clear that, with her £1bn deal with the “Democratic” Unionist Party, Theresa May did not buy power for herself, she bought subjugation for the British people – and particularly for the women citizens of Northern Ireland – to the will of religious extremists, creationists, homophobes and climate-change deniers.

Thanks to that deal, today we are suffering under a government that represents no one but an extremist minority within its own ranks and the personal ambitions of a handful of vainglorious blowhards.

For the sake of our nation, and for the sake of democracy itself, it is time for another general election.

Julian Self
Milton Keynes

As a Liberal Democrat, I too am sorry to hear of Caroline Lucas’s decision to step down as co-leader of the Green Party, and I feel we need more people like her. Andrew McLuskey (Letters, 31 May) is right to point to the poor quality of many of those elected to represent us.

This happens not only in parliament but also in councils up and down the country. These are filled with mediocre, intellectually challenged nonentities from the tired old tribal parties, while the grotesquely unfair voting system continues to exclude those who can make a far bigger and better contribution to our national and local discourse. This situation will not change until turkeys vote for Christmas or until there is a majority of well-educated electors who are motivated enough to demand change.

Sam Boote
Nottingham