We and the EU are weaker by leaving
IT was sad to see that Mr Eels (May 10) feels that a correspondent who has different views than his on the quality of English democracy under the current Tory Government is being “rude and aggressive”.
Yet another example of continuing Tory manipulation has been shown by the outcome of the recent elections for Police Commissioners. Until 2022, these votes were run on a form of proportional representation but in order to maximise their success in this round the Government had put the system back to first past the post. So even though Labour commissioner candidates received 2% more votes overall the Tories still “triumphed” with two more commissioners than Labour. I do not intend to be “insulting” in pointing this out.
Yes, the EU has voted through a change in their system for attempting to deal with migrants.
But if such people are to be sent out of the EU they will be sent to countries “with which they have a link”. EU states are also considering redirecting arrivals to other nations in Europe, such as North Macedonia. At least for many migrants, settlement there will be a little easier than in Rwanda and it will permit North Macedonia to strengthen its application to join the EU.
So Macedonia and Brussels are using a crisis to lead to a more solidly mutual future, rather than our “answer”, which is just to chuck out traumatised asylum seekers.
Your correspondent is also sure that a Labour government would be “just as inept in every way” as the Tories. A crystal ball?
And he “probably won’t vote”. That surely is proof that our “sovereign parliamentary state” leaves a lot to be desired. If thoughtful citizens don’t vote, the extremists move closer to removing even more of our flimsy democracy.
Yes, and Putin is smirking because we decided to make ourselves and the EU weaker by leaving the team. If only we had put ourselves on the bench for 10 minutes rather than 50 years.
Jeremy Hall Exeter, Devon