If Theresa May offered the country a final say on Brexit, she would win another general election

Please send your letters to letters@independent.co.uk

All along, Brexit has been very much about holding the Tory party together and keeping Jeremy Corbyn out of power. In which case, even though its membership would again want a Leave decision, for moderate Conservative MPs – spurred on by Amber Rudd’s recent support for a people’s vote out of preference to no deal – a snap general election with the Tories under new leadership ever so reluctantly offering the option to remain in the EU, would almost certainly return them to power for another five years.

How ironic in that situation, if Labour were then to oppose them in support of Brexit, despite 90 per cent of its membership wanting to remain in the EU!

Patrick Cosgrove
Bucknell​

Young MPs calling for a general strike need a history lesson

Anyone over a certain age will remember that during the 1970s there were a lot of problems connected to industrial relations. It was widely perceived – probably inaccurately – that at any given time, about one-tenth of the country was on strike!

We also experienced a relatively new phenomenon: secondary picketing, which at one dispute – labelled “Grunwick” – got seriously out of hand. I mention the above because it was one of the important factors in the election victory of Margaret Thatcher in 1979; in a nutshell: people were fed up with strikes!

Therefore, how on earth is it helpful for Labour Party members or MPs to say a general strike is a good idea? I note they are younger than me and were not around in the Seventies, however surely they are aware of at least some political history?

It is looking odds-on the economy will take a big hit next year, the last thing we need is a general strike taking us down to the Second Division, rather than bottom half of the First!

Robert Boston
Kingshill

The Tories should back a second vote – or they risk Corbyn getting into power

I am a Remain voter and have always voted for the Conservatives, and after the devastation left by the last Labour government, I would not like to see our great country go backwards again for the next 10 years if Labour get Brexit wrong.

I wish they would all stop trying to score points off of each other, start smelling the coffee and let the country decide with a second vote to see if we stay in or go out after the lies of the last election – from both sides. I think the public are more aware of what is fact and what is fiction, and it could be best for us all, before it is too late.

So please, Theresa May, bin the Chequers deal and start listening to what we all want, and not just massaging egos to stay in power.

Sean Read
Address supplied

Health scares

I do so agree with Caitlin Morrison when she writes that suggesting an illness as complex as depression in its many forms can be helped by adopting a Mediterranean diet, is simplistic and in many ways impractical.

Reading the article brought to mind one of the many wonderful characters created by the late, great and much missed Miles Kington. This character, whose name I have forgotten, had the job of creating health scares. As the character pointed out in an “interview”, there has to be a constant health scare or food fad and as one died down, his job was to create another. As with all of Miles’ zany characters there was more than a grain of truth in what was written. Every time I read of the latest research that purports to show a link with something we have or have not been using over many years, I think of Miles Kington.

Patrick Cleary
Honiton

It’s time for the Brexiteers to deliver

What Hilary Barber (Letters 26 Sep 2018) seems to have forgotten is that the UK people voted to leave the EU. That decision has been taken, and to roll back on it at this time would be an affront to democracy.

Whether you agree with the Brexit result or not, the fact remains that the vote was conducted within the legal framework of the UK and the then-prime minister promised it would be respected, despite the position of parliament being that the result was advisory.

The vote is done, and it is time for the winning side to deliver on every single promise that was made, from tariff free access to the EU to £350m per week extra for the NHS, through to no one being financially worse off as a result of Brexit.

Alan Gregory
Cheadle

We must continue to help refugees

Holly Baxter is to be applauded for referring to the global compact of migration and refugees. We have a unique opportunity to enhance refugees’ self-reliance; improve their free, acceptable and affordable access to education, healthcare and other public services; and mitigate the pressures on host countries which shouldered the disproportionate and enormous burden of refugees; while at the same time creating the right conditions for refugees to return and help in the rebuilding of their shattered home nations.

This includes the sacredness of Palestinians’ right of return to their forebears’ homeland, and their inviolable right to establish their independent, viable and sovereign state on their national soil, alongside a secure Israel.

Dr Munjed Farid Al Qutob
London NW2