Theresa May is too frightened of the Brexiteers to act in the national interest

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Theresa May is bowing to her party’s hard-line Leavers in the Brexit negotiations (AFP/Getty)

Predictably, the laborious leaving of the EU is becoming a catastrophic disaster.

The mission of the Leavers to push through the self-destructive Brexit “to gain control of our country again” is akin to a parachutist cutting his cords to “gain control” of his descent.

It is time to abandon this folly immediately or at least give the now better-informed public the chance to vote again in another referendum in which its outcome is more decisive (”A 52-48 referendum would be unfinished business by a long way” – Nigel Farage, 16 May 2016).

Of course, the PM and her ministers will do neither. The reason: cold unadulterated fear.

I believe that the Government is presently more scared of upsetting the nasty element among the Brexiteers than it is of global warming, the resurgence of the far right or an attack.

The refusal to cancel Brexit or hold another referendum out of fear of increased hate crime or civil unrest is like a surreal Wild West movie in which the nervous town sheriff – Theresa “Water Pistol” May” – cowers under the mob rule of a band of local gunslingers whose leader has scarpered.

Toby T Brewster
Cardiff

We must stand with Egypt

We are shocked at the gratuitous and mindless attack that has indiscriminately targeted innocent worshippers in Egypt. This further proves that the reprehensible cowardliness of terrorists knows no boundaries. No grievance justifies this. Muslims are the primary victims of terrorists who attack anyone who does not subscribe to their warped misinterpretation of Islam.

Egypt is the mother of the universe, the soul of the Arab world. It has a rich heritage, traditions, cuisines and civilisation. The Middle East and gulf regions are the cradle of religions and ancient civilisation. The international community should spare no effort in fighting the loathsome scourge of terrorism and help this region takes its rightful position in the civilised world.

Dr Munjed Farid al Qutob
London NW2

An open letter to Boris Johnson

I have just landed at Heathrow safely and am on my way home to see my wife and two children after a week away on business. As I arrive home, greet my wife and kiss my two young girls goodnight I will think of Richard Ratcliffe.

As you know his wife Nazanin left the UK over 600 days ago and he hasn’t seen her or his daughter since, nor does he have any idea when he will see them again. This is utterly unacceptable.

On 10 December Ratcliffe’s case will come to court again in Iran. I don’t have to tell you what the outcome of that court appearance could mean for Nazanin.

As our Foreign Secretary your primary responsibility is to protect the safety of British citizens and subjects overseas.

I spend a lot of time travelling the world for work and have always felt comfortable in the knowledge that, God forbid I ever had a problem, your department would help me out.

Following your shambolic appearance at the Foreign Affairs Select Committee and subsequent blustering about Nazanin’s case, I am starting to doubt if that always holds true.

Anyone who thinks they can be prime minister, as you did and clearly still do, should recognise that you need to lead from the front to run a country. In Nazanin’s case you have been following, not leading, from the day you entered the Foreign Office.

It is time for you to get out to Iran and bring Nazanin and Gabriella back home.

Christopher Key
East Twickenham

A new way of voting

Hugo Horsfield (Letters, 23 November) says we must challenge “first past the post” elections.

It seems to me that it would be very simple to introduce a representative, proportional system based on each elected MP being given a number of votes in the House proportional to the number of votes his or her party achieved in the country. If it takes, say, five times as many votes to elect a Lib Dem MP than a Conservative MP, then each Lib Dem MP is given five votes in the house while each Conservative MP is given one vote. In practice, fractional votes will need to be given but an electronic counting system would cope with that.

We then have, at a stroke, proportional voting in the House of Commons.

There are many other advantages including we still retain the close link between an MP and his or her constituency. Furthermore there is no longer any need need for gerrymandering constituencies or boundary changes as any inequalities are resolved in the house votes allocated to each MP.

John Harvey
Bristol

A fall in birth rates should worry us all

I was not at all surprised to read your article pointing out that the number of childless women has doubled in a generation.

Also, the other statistics just published by the ONS are not good reading. They show that at 774,835 live births in 2016 – it was the lowest year since 2006. The net population has grown but there are areas of demographic decline, eg Scotland, which had 56,728 deaths opposed to 54,488 births!

With a loss of European workers, which should probably increase, and austerity until maybe the 2030s, future statistics, I predict, shall look grim indeed. With an ever-growing army of old people we cannot possibly function without a big increase in working taxpayers.

We ignore this at our peril.

Robert Boston
Kingshill

The Budget was not altogether good news for Scotland

The Budget brought some good news for Scots. There is to be a cash injection of an extra £2bn over the rest of this Parliament, duty on whisky is frozen (again), and the VAT incurred so recklessly by the SNP government on the emergency services is to be discontinued. What is the response of the SNP? To invoke their long-time legal advisers, Moan, Whinge and Grievance.

Changes to taxation and stamp duty in the rest of the UK leave Scotland as the highest taxed part of the UK, with more tax hikes in Scotland likely in the imminent Scottish budget. This leaves Scotland as a less attractive place to do business or to live than the rest of the UK. No doubt we will see the results of that in the near future. The UK Government made a terrible mistake in devolving tax powers to Holyrood. There should be a uniform fiscal regime for the whole of the UK.

Jill Stephenson
Edinburgh