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Your support makes all the difference.I was impressed by MEP Catherine Bearder's succinct Voices article pointing out so very clearly the simple facts about Brexit and the UK gaining third country status once we leave the EU.
Is it not high time we all stood back, reassessed our position and raised our voices against the incredible damage we are already inflicting on our country’s economy and prospects? Yet sadly early on in this debate, after the vote itself, I read that people with already fixed views will never listen to rational persuasion, rather they obstinately reinforce their fixed view against all evidence to the contrary.
A big thank you to all who are brave enough hold us to reality, may we prove worthy of our children’s and grandchildren’s futures, and speak out before it is too late.
Jenny Rorrison
Address supplied
Gavin Turner (Letters) is wrong to suggest Tory Remainers were absent from last Saturday’s People’s Vote demonstration in London. At least one, Anna Soubry, was there. She was the last speaker, and a fine and impassioned speech she gave, too.
As for the absence of “business leaders who know better than most what dangers would lie ahead for the British economy,” one of the most forceful and eloquent speakers on the day was Ciaran Donovan, the courier boss who recently gave William Rees-Mogg a run for his money on a radio phone-in.
Donovan went into great detail about the damage a no deal Brexit would have on businesses nationwide
As for the so-called benefits of the Norwegian or Swiss option touted by “moderate” Brexiteers, delays crossing even these borders are already significant. Donovan gave the example of being held at the Swiss border for so long he was a day late getting to the exhibition he was delivering displays to. Not exactly encouraging news for any enterprise reliant on swift and efficient movement across Europe.
Turner (a self-confessed newbie to political demos) was also critical of what he described as the “poor organisation” of last Saturday’s event. Well, maybe. But as a veteran of demonstrations going back to the 1960s, I can assure him that the demo was no worse and probably a lot better organised than any number of similar events I could care to mention.
The key thing now is to put aside differences on peripheral issues and unite around a common goal: namely, the right for a People’s Vote on the final Brexit deal.
Rob Prince
London SE13
A second Brexit referendum would be ridiculous
You have to admire Patrick Cosgrove’s chutzpah (Letters). Fifty-two per cent of the electorate isn’t enough of the public will, but get 100,000 out on a demo and bingo a People’s Vote is in the offing! Using the same logic maybe we should let Panama go through to the next round of the World Cup in England’s place.
Mark Thomas
Histon
In support of Boris Johnson disappearing
It seems odd that anyone should be complaining that Boris Johnson has fled to Afghanistan to avoid the Heathrow vote in parliament.
Those of us in the UK, at least, would be much better off were he to stay there.
D Maughan Brown
York
In 1976 Pink Floyd, then well past their musical best, used a balloon in the shape of a giant pig as part of a photo shoot for the album Animals. It all got rather messy and the pig floated away, disrupting air traffic into Heathrow. It was a desperate attempt at publicity from fading stars.
On Monday this week Theresa May’s fading stars released their own giant hot air balloon, called Boris, in the hope that it would enhance air traffic into Heathrow. Sadly, they lost control of their balloon too.
Bernard Cudd
Morpeth
Boris Johnson’s resignation would “achieve absolutely nothing”? It would make me very happy for a start.
Dave Thomas
Bristol
Good thing we have Sadiq Khan to contest the Heathrow vote
As a Scot I resonate with the parallel John McDonnell MP has drawn between the vote on Heathrow expansion and the Highland Clearances. In both cases money and power have trumped the interests of ordinary people.
The parliamentary vote flies in the face of weighty advice questioning the value of the proposed third runway. Two million people will suffer more noise and thousands of houses are likely to be demolished. All in all the decision is deeply disappointing.
There is of course some encouragement in the fact that London Mayor Sadiq Khan and a group of local councils plan to contest the decision via judicial review. Those of us who remain unpersuaded by the airport’s arguments must wish them well.
Andrew McLuskey
Staines
The North exists too, you know
“Britain swelters in the sunshine” stories today have been mostly followed by photos of London, London, Bournemouth, Bath, Bath and, er, London again.
It may surprise readers to know that the sun also shines north of Watford!
Fran Kime
Sheffield
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