Theresa May's Brexit strategy is ruining this country

I have no faith at all in Theresa May. Her 12-point plan read like a lot of empty words and promises, and nothing she’s done or said so far has inspired me with any trust or optimism. Actually, it’s the exact opposite.

Britain, the tolerant and open country I have loved dearly ever since I arrived here in 1984 as one of the very first Erasmus exchange students, has changed beyond recognition within the space of a few months. The deeply divisive and disingenuous Leave campaign led by cynical politicians and right-wing newspapers has been followed by your equally divisive and disingenuous Government. May has betrayed tolerant Brits and non-Brits alike in embracing the current anti-immigration narrative to cover her party’s lack of care and investment in this country and its people.

30-odd years ago, I was warmly invited to build my life here. I was told it was my home from home. I was told I could settle down, marry a Brit and make my life here. Yet today I am told I’m a bloody foreigner and should go back where I come from. Things have got so bad that many of my fellow EU citizens hardly dare to speak their own language on the streets for fear of being insulted or attacked. Our very own identity is being challenged, our future, our life. And never, not once, has May stood up against this hatred, although she has been formally warned about it by the Equality and Human Rights Commission. She may believe that dividing is the way to conquer but it is not. She is destroying what has made Britain so special, what has made Britain great: its soft power, a mixture of charm, tolerance, creative spirit and openness. And she has encouraged the massive rift that is now tearing your country apart, destroying friendships, families and even couples.

Dr Véronique Martin
Bath

The loss of a loved one is difficult to deal with at the best of times, but there are an increasing number of deaths linked to prescribed psychiatric drugs, specifically antidepressant drugs. The loss is even harder to deal with when the loss is of a son or daughter.

It was recently reported that 13-year-old Sophie Clark had been referred to child and adolescent mental health services, that she was having counselling and had been prescribed antidepressants. She was found hanged in woods.

Despite the increasing list of warnings issued by drug regulatory agencies about the dangers of antidepressants, these “designer medical bullets” are still being prescribed at huge cost to the taxpayer and are still being linked to unnecessary fatalities.

When considering all of the effects of antidepressants, which include suicidal thoughts, it is a sad reflection on the psychiatric industry that it has not taken action to prevent even more young lives being lost to this chemical invasion.

Antidepressants are associated with but not limited to the following effects: nausea, headache, anxiety, confusion, emotional numbness, irritability, agitation, psychosis, seizures, and as mentioned, suicide. Collateral damage doesn’t appear to concern those with vested interests, but for those with humanitarian integrity, one death linked to the drugs is one too many.

Psychiatrists and drug companies commonly say that benefits of the drugs outweigh the risks. When you consider the money statistics, it looks like profits outweigh the risks. In 2015, antidepressants in England cost £284m, Scotland paid out more than £40m, and Northern Ireland's bill exceeded £13m.

It smacks of a profit-driven agenda. The fact that antidepressants continue to generate millions in revenue is testimony to the psychiatric spin doctors and their glossy propaganda, but the fatalities seem to be ignored in favour of profit.

A person or in many cases, a parent must be allowed to make a fully informed choice before allowing their children to be exposed to antidepressant drugs. They must be informed and they must be made fully aware of all of the consequences. How much more harm and how many more deaths will be recorded before the relevant authorities decide that enough is enough?

Brian Daniels
East Grinstead

Exactly which public is the Army trying to reassure by escorting through the English Channel Russian warships returning from the eastern Mediterranean? Anyone who thinks the Russians, unaccompanied, would have sneakily diverted into Portsmouth harbour or Le Havre in order to menace the British or French has to be deluded. And the Russians must have thought the deployment of both a frigate and a number of aircraft to observe the passage a pathetic gesture when this could have been accomplished by radar, if not simply with a pair of binoculars from the shore. The top brass must have little regard for the intelligence of the taxpayer if, on an occasion such as this, they think we would be more concerned about invasion than about the frivolous use of our military resources.

Ian Reid
​Kilnwick

In a recent speech, the Labour leader suggested that the highest paid salary in a company should be no more than 20 times the lowest salary.

To us, this issue isn’t about the failings of true market economics, but what is commonly termed “crony capitalism”, where the likes of nepotism, secret societies and old school tie distort the value of labour in the marketplace.

One issue is that to get a well-paid job you need to study and, most likely nowadays, work as an unpaid intern. But even though this is helping people to get a better paid job and create more tax revenue, the DWP does not consider it looking for work and won’t support them financially. This constitutes a crude lock-out of the lower classes regardless of the talent they might have.

It’s estimated that 1 per cent of the population control around 50 per cent of the world’s wealth. These discrepancies can effectively disenfranchise the poorer and stifle new ideas. Different people have different skills, better business sense, invest more time and money in training and work harder, so there is indeed a need for higher pay for the productive worker, and a 20-fold wage difference easily takes that into account, while being fair towards the lowest paid.

Andrew and Katherine Wainwright
Halstead, Essex

Air pollution remains an evil with colossal magnitude, a public health challenge with regional and global repercussions on human and societal health and economy. We are all galvanised with energy, creative innovations and the power of solidarity to challenge, fight and defeat tuberculosis, malaria, HIV/Aids, poverty, hunger, international terrorism, antimicrobial resistance and infectious diseases. However, air pollution kills 4.3 million annually worldwide. Yet, it receives less attention and research funding. It is time to coordinate efforts and pull our energies and resources to keep this global menace at bay.

Dr Munjed Farid Al Qutob
London, NW2

I know Donald Trump is thinking of us as I write, given that is likely where America will eventually exile him. Convicts and felons ended up in Oz in the 1770s, and perhaps former presidents will be sent here for us to deal with as well.

We are fly-bitten and hard-bitten survivors of desert and tropical landscapes, it is a land where probably $50m will be spent on fireworks tonight in five or more major Australian cities, when people around the world are dying in their homes for some cursed reason like sectarian violence.

While Donald puts up multi-billion dollar walls to make America a nation again, the same issues continue to ruin the lives of billions of people. The haves have walls, the have-nots have nothing.

And any way you look at it, that means that a true global village where everyone is looked after is becoming more and more a pipe dream.

Arthur Pagonis
Australia

It is a pity that among other failings President Trump lacks irony. Pink Floyd performing Another Brick in the Wall at his inauguration would have been a fantastic demonstration of his ability to forward plan; something, to date, lacking in his administration.

John McKinley
Birmingham