Letters - December 2, 2019

I wonder whether Brexiteers like John Roberts (Your Say, Gazette, November 26) are fully aware of the consequences of leaving the EU with No Deal. These are no cliche, Mr Roberts.

Hundreds of thousands of people across this country will lose their jobs. And for what?

We will have to add the extra cost of tariffs to our exports, which will make them uncompetitive.

There will be queues either side of the Channel which will lead to delays. Manufacturing companies, including vehicles, rely on the supplies of “just in time “ parts so that they can keep their production lines running. Meanwhile, food and medicine imports will also be delayed.

A lot of companies are already leaving and if No Deal happens there will be a mass exodus.

A third of our food is imported from the EU. Under No Deal the Bank of England forecast a five per cent to 10 per cent rise in food prices.

A leading think tank expects the cost of No Deal to be £70 billion over the next decade compared with staying in the EU.

Don’t forget that we will also have to pay the Brexit exit charge, which currently stands at £33 billion.

A No Deal Brexit will create a self imposed recession on our country which will take years to recover from.

Michael Turner

via email

POLITICS

It’s our money

for our services

Conservative pundits have criticised Labour’s plans for improved public services as ‘free stuff’ aimed at influencing voters.

Of course, it’s nothing of the sort.

For years, the Conservatives have used our taxes to bail out their friends, subsidise the already wealthy and give yet more to those who need it least. They like to reward the billionaires and oligarchs who fund their party.

Labour are simply planning to spend our taxes on services that will improve the lives of the majority of us. Our money, our services sounds fair enough to me.

Dennis Smith

via email

RELIGION

Our rural churches need to centralise

In many rural churches, the congregations have reduced over the past 20 or 30 years and consequently trying to keep the doors open is becoming harder and harder.

The cost of keeping these buildings open on a day-to-day basis is quite expensive and the money has to be raised by the congregation. The churches are not financed from a central point, as is often thought by many of the public.

Many of these churches have a vicar in charge of a group of three, four, five or six, and in some cases even more.

Wouldn’t it be better just to keep one church of the group open and the congregations centralise? I can understand this will cause heartache in many places having to decide which churches stay and which close. We appear to be in a situation where there is also a shortage of vicars, especially those that would like to be in the countryside. It can often take up to a year to replace a vicar and this puts pressure on the congregations having to organise services for themselves during that time.

Are we now coming to a point in the life of the church when something radical has to be done to keep it up and running?

How do we come to a decision as to which churches stay open and which ones close?

Barry Ewbank

address supplied

COMMUNICATION

A sinister side to free broadband

Labour has decided, if it wins the next General Election, it will nationalise the country’s internet network and give it free to everyone.

Apart from being an economic disaster for the nation, it also has a potential sinister side-effect which has been used in other countries.

Recently, demonstrations broke out in Iran when the government raised the price of fuel by 50 per cent. One of the first actions of the Iranian government was to close down the internet thus stopping demonstrators communicating with each other.

What happened in Iran can quite easily happen in this country when the nation’s internet is run by the government.

There is no point in being given free internet by the government if the government controls its content or closes it down when it wishes.

The old saying “Beware of Greeks bearing gifts” comes to mind.

Bernard Darbyshire

via email