Letters - September 4, 2019

I witnessed an upsetting situation yesterday on a 10-minute bus ride to Poulton.

As I sat down, I was aware of a woman on a double seat, bent towards the floor, and a man on a seat facing the aisle, also bent forward. They’d both be in their early 50s.

At first I thought they were looking for something that one of them had dropped, but it soon became apparent that these two people were ‘spaced out’, either by drugs or alcohol. The man stirred a couple of times, attempting to sit upright, but then fell forward again towards the floor. The woman never moved from her position.

When we arrived at Poulton, everyone got off, except these two people and the driver had to go to them, clapping his hands and saying it was time to get off, which they did, in a very unsteady manner. I heard the woman say: “I don’t know where I am”, before they both ambled off.

They would both start life, as we all do, by their mothers giving birth to them, but how they were treated and raised had obviously produced dire consequences. What chain of events and what subsequently happened that made them flee from the real world and their desire not to be in it? What type of society have we allowed to be cultivated, when there are countless people on drugs and alcohol, causing misery not only to themselves, but to their families too?

Life isn’t easy when we abide by the rules - (the 10 commandments). When we break them, it’s doubly hard!

We all need to care more for and support other people.

Mrs J Geddes

Address supplied

BREXIT

Decision could endanger democracy

The Government’s decision to prorogue Parliament is an affront to our parliamentary representative system that, from an early age, I was taught is the hallmark of a mature democracy: one in which the electorate puts its trust in MPs to govern the country properly and justly.

The Government’s justification for closing down Parliament appears to be that, since MPs have failed to agree on a solution to Brexit, their views are no longer relevant, and that the Government, in the interests of “the will of the people”, needs to be “seen to act”.

In other words, to pacify what a vocal minority have come to view as their “democratic right”.

By no means all of those who voted Leave, however, are in favour of this anti-democratic tactic.

The pressure to be “seen to be doing something” is always a dangerous urge, and needs to be resisted by those with governmental responsibilities.

I can understand the logic of Mr Johnson arguing that, to be able to negotiate a “deal” with the EU, he needs to be able to dangle a threat of “no deal” before them, but that is his view. It is not necessarily the view of Parliament, and Parliament is paramount. No one during the referendum campaign suggested Parliament’s will should be by-passed.

The cry of those who wish to leave the EU has long been “to regain our sovereignty” but that word in this country has been synonymous with the sovereignty of Parliament. It is Parliament that expresses the “will of the people” and if it now allows itself to be hamstrung by constitutionally unprecedented manoeuvres, then we all suffer a loss of sovereignty.

I urge all our elected representatives to take action to prevent the Government’s prorogation of Parliament setting a new precedent that might further endanger our democracy in future. It is a constitutional issue as important as Brexit, and many of us objectors would be prepared to accept a compromise solution to Brexit in the interests of national unity.

Peter D Brown

via email

BREXIT

No Deal has

no mandate

The act of proroguing Parliament has incensed me to such an extent that I feel I must express my reaction publicly.

The referendum result stands but a No Deal outcome was not suggested or debated.

It is therefore not mandated.

We mandate our elected representatives to make important decisions on our behalf for the benefit and protection of all in Britain, even if some of us don’t like some of those decisions.

Taking that power away, without our permission, is a loss of our power as British people over how Britain is governed now and in the future.

Whatever your view on Brexit, the decision to prorogue Parliament is an affront to our rights as British citizens and I implore you to reject it and stand up for those rights.

Margaret Baugh

via email