Letters - July 26, 2019

When the good Doc, Barry Clayton, called Jeremy Corbyn and team antisemitic in the Gazette (Your Say, July 20) it needs challenging.

The ex-PM waved an article from the Guardian signed by 60 unelected Peers and to say Labour was racist rather than answer the question of this Government’s lack of progress on the environment.

The Lords should be ashamed of their attack on an elected party leader. The first time the House of commons was abolished in 1649, the commons motion read that their Lordships were useless and dangerous.

Many people think it’s time to revive that motion.

There is nothing more grating than having unelected, insular, wealthy Establishment figures doing everything in their power, including throwing money at anti-Corbyn newspapers and hosting an anti-Corbyn advertisement.

There are people literally dying because of this vile government, be it through suicide, homelessness, lack of adequate health care, and these peers decide now to attack the leader of Her majesty’s opposition.

The small percentage of anti-semites in our party are there in spite of him not because of him. They want him gone not because they believe he is an anti-semite but because they know he is a socialist and a committed radical one who will change things.

The truth is the problem is minuscule.

The 0.06 per cent of anti-semitic instances in Labour is in stark contrast to the 60 per cent of bourgeois racist bigots in the Tory Party who believe Islam is generally a threat to Western civilisation.

We can’t afford not to combat the duplicitous, slanderous campaigns which besmirches those of us seeking a Corbyn-led government.

Royston Jones

Anchorsolme

Politics

Foundations built on sand

We should all be thankful for the fact that the Conservative Party has at last voted in the leading Brexiter Boris Johnson as our next Prime Minister.

That is not to say I am a fan. Far from it. How we have managed to end up with a PM who, in addition to numerous gaffs, has allegedly twice lost jobs for lying is beyond me.

But had Jeremy Hunt been chosen, it will have been described as another Remainer stitch-up when he failed to get any change from the EU.

At least now there will be one less excuse when Boris has to face reality and find there will be no material change to the deal agreed by Theresa May, and that Brexit is far more complicated than he and his chums led us to believe.

Boris will be picking his own team and he will at last have to take responsibility. But will he? I expect the blame will be levelled at the EU despite the fact they have consistently said that we cannot pick and choose which bits of EU advantages we wish to retain.

So when Boris and co find out that wishful thinking, soundbites and banging fists on the table doesn’t get them anywhere, I would like to think they will have the integrity to admit they got it wrong.

They never did their research before the Brexit campaign. That is obvious from comments from senior Brexiters, like Dominic Raab, who admitted not realising the importance of the port of Dover.

They said during the Leave campaign that we needed to take back control of our borders but didn’t even think there may be people who cross the Northern Ireland/ Republic border every day to go to work, move goods or just go about their daily lives.

How were they ever going to do that on the island of Ireland?

They never told us anything about this before the referendum. When they eventually realised the problem, their knee-jerk reaction was to claim there is a technological solution.

Where is it?

They have been making it all up as they go along.

So as we look forward to the next chapter in this saga, there will no doubt be further twists and turns. After all, no one suggested no deal when they asked us to vote leave, no one mentioned spending the so-called savings on tax reductions for higher earners. Anyone challenging the Brexiters was called a scaremonger. Officials who have had to do the real work were called ‘High Priests of Project Fear’ when they couldn’t achieve the impossible.

Boris now says he will take us out of the EU on October 31. He won’t. If he doesn’t get turfed out by his own party before then, he will find a way of reneging on that promise but will blame someone else. Personality, posh voices and sound bites only go so far. That is the easy bit. Any major plan impacting on the lives of over 60 million people requires a foundation of research and preparation from the outset.

In this case it should have been before the campaign to get us out of the EU. Failure to prepare really is preparing to fail. I expect we are about to find that the foundations of Mr Johnson and his supporters are built on sand.

E Harrison

Address supplied