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Brexit’s just a scam

AS WE hurtle towards the cliff edge, somewhat surprised that the other 27 countries are not prostrating themselves to fit around our agenda, the latest thinking from the Brexit boys is that we will in all likelihood be poorer in the long term but that is a price worth paying ‘to get our country back’.

Had Cameron not been so sublimely confident he would win the referendum, he may have posed a somewhat more cerebral and more flexible question, that could have then much strengthened a UK negotiating position... backed up by the clear threat to trigger article 50.

Alas he did not, so we now have a tiny majority of those who bothered to vote (you need a two thirds majority to change the constitution of a WI group!) making the running for the most acrimonious, most nasty and most destructive of breakdowns in relations with our only real friends in the world.

If anyone in their right mind thinks Liam Fox wandering around the globe will even begin to repair the damage we will do to our country through lost commercial relationships in Europe built up over 50 years, then they are sadly deluded. It will not happen overnight but believe me, it will happen.

Last June we freely opened the democratic process up to every man, woman and child in the country of voting age. Those Brexiteers who ranted on so loudly about democratic choice, today seem extremely reticent to trust those same British people with an opportunity to finally confirm their vote, once the lies are swept away, the reality is stark and the cliff edge is in full view.

Once the real facts become clear to all of us, they and their colleagues are not at all sure they can repeat this deceit a second time around.

As a would-be collective of lemmings, we are torpedoing our economy and are in danger of throwing our remaining shreds of social decency overboard as ballast to our sinking mutual pride. We were told Brexit represented certainty, the antidote to both two years of austerity and a feeling of insignificance in an increasingly global world.

It was a simple story, but then fairy tales invariably are. Aggregate IQ whose data scientists so efficiently used Facebook to micro target impressionable voters, were working on behalf of a collection of xenophobes philosophically well to the right of one nation Conservatives, who want more neo-liberal austerity… less regulation and fewer employment rights. They managed to convince millions to vote ‘out’ who in reality should have been doing the opposite, as it is they who will eventually end up paying the price for this gross folly. Those same shady salesman who were able to present themselves as ‘champions of the people’ will remain fully insulated and sail quietly into the sunset and beyond with their country houses, gold plated inflation proof pensions, their weekend cottages and with a renewed contempt for the mass of impressionable fellow citizens they so successfully hoodwinked.

JOHN STOOKE, Haydon End, Havisham Drive, Swindon

Europe’s arrogance

IT NEVER ceases to astound me, regarding the attitude of the pure arrogance of the European Disunion autocrats.

We saved these nations from the Nazis. Hitler, after invading Poland, started to gas and murder innocent Germany-born handicapped kids. A test case and prelude to his plans for the extermination of the Jewish nation, man, women and child. We freed these nations from a similar fate.

Now the second biggest financial gravy train contributor in modern history to the economically failed disunion has come to its senses in supplementing these parasites no more. Remember, if you paid someone else’s bills in preference to your own you would not last five minutes in the real world regarding the financial liabilities of a modern household. Never mind the ruthlessness of business. Take note Prime Minister May regarding foreign aid to foreign girl pop groups, and airports that you cannot land in because of the wind rush, at British hard-working taxpayers expense.

After the British democratic vote to leave they now threaten us with trading sanctions? An island nation that has successfully traded with the world for centuries?

You backed the remain side for political gain, Prime Minister May – a common practice in the world of the duplicitous Westminster greasy pole of the insidious. Do not attempt to try it again with British salt-of-the-earth hard-working individuals. You do so at your electoral peril. Gideon and call me Dave come to mind, to mention but a few failed political charlatans.

BILL WILLIAMS, Merlin Way, Covingham, Swindon

Broken promises

The Prime Minister pledges to introduce legislation to protect workers from unscrupulous bosses who fail to honour their commitment to pensions. Whilst at first glance this appears an admirable objective it should be considered alongside previous Conservative pledges.

At the Conservative Party Conference in October 2007, Chris Grayling ‘promised’ to compensate savers whose pension schemes have collapsed. He promised to ‘re-float’ the pensions lifeboat quashed by Gordon Brown using the Parliament Act.

Mr Grayling argued that Mr Brown’s handling of the pension system was “nothing short of criminal”. People who had been deprived of their full pension entitlement were ‘promised’ 90 per cent of what they were entitled to – little did an unsuspecting public think the figures would be manipulated thus ensuring very few actually received anything like 90 per cent and worse the payments would be fixed for life.

When introducing the new State Pension the Government promised “You’ll get whichever is higher – the amount you would have got on the last day of the old system or the amount you would get had the new system been in place over the whole of your working life.” That too is a promise that simply didn’t happen.

The Government is running an advertisement urging soon-to-be retirees to enquire what pension amount they will be entitled to – sadly you can’t rely on the State to tell you. In my case the figure I was given in January and February 2016 was different to what I actually received in October 2016 and despite the intervention of my MP there has been no explanation for the difference.

Politicians promise, pledge and vow but in all reality they are worthless assurances, designed only to win a vote. When the candidate is elected they soon forget the promises they made to the electorate, the Party in Government discovers they can’t afford to implement the proposal and we all sigh ‘it was ever thus’ and wait for another election train to come along.

DES MORGAN, Caraway Drive, Swindon

Erosion of the NHS

Our NHS is suffering the most serious crisis in its 70-year existence.

We are entering the end stages of a 30-year-old privatisation plan.

The head of the NHS Simon Stevens recently announced that waiting times for non-urgent operations would rise. He said that due to an ageing population and the rise in demand for services the NHS simply must make choices about its priorities.

The mainstream media is painting Simon Stevens as some innocent intermediary but in fact if you look at his past history he was chief executive of United Health Global which is one of America’s biggest insurance companies and he’s heading the NHS England. This really should ring some big alarm bells!

In the 1980s the railways were wilfully underfunded so that by the 1990s the public are angry at the poor service. The Government stepped in and said British Rail isn’t working, we need to privatise and hopefully the public think this has to be an improvement. There is an element of this now with the NHS.

We are now in the de-funding stage, then you get to making people angry and the only way to save this with top-up insurance. So expect increased waiting lists and a restriction of services to people who smoke, are overweight or drink alcohol.

So you have the narrative of the undeserving sick and the erosion of social cohesion softening us up for the final privatisation step.

LINDA CROUCHER, Eldene

Blair the cowboy

WHEN will Tony Blair learn to keep his mouth shut? He misled this country into an illegal war in Iraq, using bogus info, and in the process destabilised the Middle East.

Saddam Hussein, granted, by some awful oppressive and cruel policies, maintained a certain stability in the region. What Blair and Bush failed to consider was how they were going to maintain that stability without using his appalling methods. And Blair now has the gall to voice his opposition to Brexit. Hasn’t he done enough damage in this world?

The sad result of his ill-conceived attack on Iraq is that the whole region is a boiling pot, and scores of young men and women in this country, and the US of A, are having to cope with life without one or more of their limbs, whilst Blair, swans around the world making speeches, and roping in millions. He should in fact be put on trial as a war criminal, and made to hand over his ill gotten gain to those limbless men and women, suffering as a result of his cowboy action.

JOHN J JONES, Swindon

Reading challenge

I SINCERELY hope that the improvements (council speak for cuts) to the library service do not mean the end of the wonderful ‘Summer Reading Challenge’.

As a volunteer at the event for the last four years, I felt honours and privileged to have been a part of so many young people’s reading enjoyment and development.

It is an amazing scheme for which all involved over the years should take a bow. My eternal thanks to all at Swindon Central Library for allowing me to be involved.

DAVID WATKINS, Upper Stratton, Swindon