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| Key decision for the Lib Dems on Brexit Key decision for the Lib Dems on Brexit | |
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| Tim Farron and the Liberal Democrats must unequivocally come out against Brexit this week in their conference (Report, 16 September). Otherwise no one who voted to stay in the EU will have anywhere to go with their vote at the next Westminster election in England. I believe in democracy: 37.4% of registered voters in England voted to leave the EU and 34.5% voted to stay. The remaining 28% of voters in England were content to leave it to the politicians. In Scotland 40.5% voted to stay in the EU and only 28% voted to leave the EU; 32% of voters in Scotland wanted the politicians to decide for them. What was clear about the outcome of the EU referendum? Why won’t someone come out and say they do not accept the referendum was a clear mandate for Brexit?Nigel Boddy Darlington | Tim Farron and the Liberal Democrats must unequivocally come out against Brexit this week in their conference (Report, 16 September). Otherwise no one who voted to stay in the EU will have anywhere to go with their vote at the next Westminster election in England. I believe in democracy: 37.4% of registered voters in England voted to leave the EU and 34.5% voted to stay. The remaining 28% of voters in England were content to leave it to the politicians. In Scotland 40.5% voted to stay in the EU and only 28% voted to leave the EU; 32% of voters in Scotland wanted the politicians to decide for them. What was clear about the outcome of the EU referendum? Why won’t someone come out and say they do not accept the referendum was a clear mandate for Brexit?Nigel Boddy Darlington |
| • To suggest as Paddy Ashdown does (Opinion, 17 September) that after Brexit he “felt like everyone else, bereft” defies one indisputable fact – 52% voted leave. That’s not everyone. Not even close. This kind of view from the “elite”, that because the people in the circles they move in feel something it must be the single biggest reason why people voted leave, shows that they simply don’t get it, and have no understanding of what life is like for the vast majority of us. | • To suggest as Paddy Ashdown does (Opinion, 17 September) that after Brexit he “felt like everyone else, bereft” defies one indisputable fact – 52% voted leave. That’s not everyone. Not even close. This kind of view from the “elite”, that because the people in the circles they move in feel something it must be the single biggest reason why people voted leave, shows that they simply don’t get it, and have no understanding of what life is like for the vast majority of us. |
| For example, news reporter (I paraphrase): “Tell me, why did you vote leave?” Lorry driver in Boston: “Because I work for a company with 150 drivers – 10 speak English. I earn less than I did 15 years ago for the same job, and I work more hours. I can’t get my kids into the school all our family has been through. It took me six hours to get seen at A&E the other day. The town I grew up in is now unrecognisable to me. And you ask me why I voted leave?” | For example, news reporter (I paraphrase): “Tell me, why did you vote leave?” Lorry driver in Boston: “Because I work for a company with 150 drivers – 10 speak English. I earn less than I did 15 years ago for the same job, and I work more hours. I can’t get my kids into the school all our family has been through. It took me six hours to get seen at A&E the other day. The town I grew up in is now unrecognisable to me. And you ask me why I voted leave?” |
| I voted remain, but everything the EU has said since, plus the actions of many MPs, only makes me think I should have voted leave as well.Rob RedmileNewark, Nottinghamshire | I voted remain, but everything the EU has said since, plus the actions of many MPs, only makes me think I should have voted leave as well.Rob RedmileNewark, Nottinghamshire |
| • Re Michael Kettle’s piece on the “post-liberal age” (Opinion, 16 September). As embodied in the Lib Dems, liberalism has tried to reconcile the irreconcilable: that is to say, what we term economic liberalism and what we mean by democracy, at least in its minimal sense as what is in the interests of the people as a whole. These are completely different things sharing the same name. Political liberalism was predestined to fail.Donovan PedeltyBuilth Wells, Powys | • Re Michael Kettle’s piece on the “post-liberal age” (Opinion, 16 September). As embodied in the Lib Dems, liberalism has tried to reconcile the irreconcilable: that is to say, what we term economic liberalism and what we mean by democracy, at least in its minimal sense as what is in the interests of the people as a whole. These are completely different things sharing the same name. Political liberalism was predestined to fail.Donovan PedeltyBuilth Wells, Powys |