Letters: Can we blame the EU for our own failings?

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Chancellor George Osborne listens as Prime Minister David Cameron delivers a speech on the economic impact of the UK leaving the European Union at B&Q headquarters in Chandler's Ford, Hampshire, Monday 23 May, 2016 (PA)

What strikes me most about the EU debate is the extent to which Brexit supporters seek to redirect blame onto the EU for what is in so many respects our own government and country's failures over many decades.

Failure to build sufficient homes.

Failure to invest in adequate National Health services.

Failure to invest in education and new schools.

Failure to invest in public services.

If we had vastly more investment in what matters then surely so many would not be falling over one another to condemn immigration for all our woes and problems.

Europe in the end is about us becoming European citizens, not raving nationalists. And that means working on all we have in common, starting with human rights.

Together as Europeans it is surely blindingly clear we have far more collective world power than any one of our countries on its own.

And as far as democracy goes I think we need to take stock: the UK is surely most undemocratic country in the whole of the EU, with 800 totally unelected members in the House of Lords.

So my vote is 100 per cent yes for a democratic Europe. Not for hyped-up nationalism and so called "sovereignty" in a country where an elitist 5 per cent of population still owns 90 per cent of land and estates.

Jeff Williams, Poole

Harold Wilson promised us EU reforms in 1975 if we only voted to stay in the predecessor to the EU. These never happened. After 41 years it is clear that if we vote to 'remain', all of these reforms will finally take place. No, honest guv.

Fool me once ...

June Warner, Kirk Deighton

The Leave group insists that the NHS is clogged up by EU migrants.

If we leave, it seems probable that up to a million British pensioners will be forced to abandon their current homes in Spain, France and so on, and return to live in the UK.

Which is more likely to be a burden on the NHS: healthy, working-age Europeans or elderly Brits, wrenched from their homes in the sun?

Richard Francis, France

While this time the issue should be sovereignty, given that Europe has become a political union, the Government’s favoured ground in the referendum campaign is economics.

I don’t see it. The UK pays over £5bn net a year – disregarding money spent where Brussels chooses and a grace-and-favour rebate. But it gets the same putative trade advantages as other states who take the money that we and a few others are obliged to give.

If we leave, as I believe we should, we will regain control lost over our own affairs, the ability to decide to how to protect our environment (by, for example, limiting fishing in our waters), freedom to trade with the rest of the world – and our money back. A quadruple whammy.

Peter Cresswell, Ilfracombe

Thanks to warring Tory schoolboys, the EU referendum has now been reduced to a pillow fight between John Major in his underpants and Boris Johnson with his pyjama bottoms all around his ankles. The upshot of these Conservative dorm antics is that the future of our country has been reduced to a childish farce.

As Boris, Cameron and all the warring Old Etonians and their ragged followers know, there is only one solution to this public school chaos. Invite Matron to knock the boys' heads together with a cold shower and early to bed. Feathers on floor, broom-in-hand, enter Eton Dame-in-waiting, Theresa May. Perhaps she can sort this all out.

Anthony Rodriguez, Middlesex

More sympathy for the chaos of parenting, please

How easy it is for Grace Dent, as a non-parent, to judge those in the news! Being childless doesn't make her 'archly level-headed' about children, it makes her completely ignorant about how life is sometimes with small people in it.

I'm sure anyone, childless or not, would agree that we all should judge those parents who wilfully mistreat, abuse or neglect their children, but to judge a parent who loses sight of their four year old for a moment (they can disappear in a micro-second, I speak from experience) is a waste of her time and writing talent. Michelle Gregg, who lost sight of her child momentarily and has been completely vilified for doing so, was not responsible for the death of Harambe the gorilla/ Those in charge of the zoo are ultimately responsible for both the wellbeing of their animals and the people who visit, and it is they who should be judged.

How did that little boy get into the gorilla enclosure? It should have been made completely impossible! By making it not so, those in charge at the zoo endangered the lives of both Harambe and the child, with tragic consequences for a beautiful, innocent animal that was under their care.

One more thing, Grace - 'stunning, top class' parenting doesn't exist. It's just loving your children and surviving their wonderful chaos.

Lucy Dunne, Liverpool

Ali was a model Muslim

The sad demise of Muhammad Ali is a tragedy. He was a legendary, invigorating, mythical and inspirational figure. But more than that, he was one of the fiercest advocates for the Islamic faith.

Who could imagine that a pious and devoted Muslim would manage to unite the world in death and life, and remains a marching figure for respect, unity, understanding, racial equality, religious harmony, human dignity and freedom?

Dr Munjed Farid Al Qutob

London NW2