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The Brexit protesters’ underlying argument is flawed – people did vote for no deal

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

Saturday 31 August 2019 19:34 BST
Comments
Jeremy Corbyn: next week is last chance to stop no-deal Brexit

It’s nonsense for protesters to claim that “nobody voted for no deal”. Theresa May said again and again during the 2017 election campaign “no deal is better than a bad deal”. It’s even in the Conservative Party manifesto (page 36).

Theresa May’s withdrawal agreement was rejected by Parliament three times. If that isn’t a bad deal, what is? Therefore, if the EU does not offer a better acceptable deal, the Conservatives are fully justified by their manifesto to go for “No Deal”.

James Gordon
London NW4

I was brought up in Argentina and Brazil and expected politicians there to do anything to benefit themselves. I had always thought Britain was sensible, honest and legal. I cannot believe what is happening. All my friends abroad are wringing their hands at the state Britain is in, and it will take decades to recover our good name.

P Stevens
Address Supplied

Brexit is wronger than wrong on every level. The case of Anna Amato, as reported by Reuters today, whose parents brought her to the UK 55 years ago, illustrates something of just how wrong.

Anna went to school here, followed by university and work. She understandably thought and felt that her right to residency was assured. Wrong!

She’s now in a legal limbo with potentially just days to go.

Let’s take the next step and imagine just for a moment it was us.

Where is our world-renowned sense of decency?

For me, Brexit and racism are as inseparable as the biscuits and cheese I had for lunch.

It has no justification – lawfully (as the referendum was judged defunct and corrupt), and certainly none whatsoever economically or morally.

And you can be sure that, one way or another, if we allow our fundamental values to be ransacked like this, it will come back to bite us – hard!

Hoping for good from Brexit is like Vlad the Impaler trying to claim immunity by good karma on the day of judgement.

Maybe he got sent back as Boris Johnson to redeem himself but instead opted for a second reign of horror culminating in a blaze of destruction on Halloween?

Michael Cunliffe
West Yorkshire

Sadly when Boris Johnson’s gung-ho tactics fail and we leave the EU without a deal, his response will merely be an insouciant shrug followed by a feeble “well, at least I tried”.

Christopher Learmont-Hughes
Wirral

It has been slowly dawning on me what was really going on in Westminster. The declared intent doesn’t match the actions of the government and what reasoning there has been is opaque at best.

Patrick Cockburn’s article crystallises it very succinctly. There is one big difference with the events in Turkey and the situation in the UK: Turkey didn’t have the restraining hand of the EU courts and institutions to moderate extreme actions.

Suddenly a possible reason for urgently leaving the EU becomes clear. Progress towards a dictatorship, however benignly it wants to be seen, would be severely hampered by our EU partners.

Once free of this, the centralisation of power can really get going.

Ashley Herbert
Huddersfield

Clearly Boris Johnson thinks it’s his Brexit. It’s not, it’s the people’s Brexit. The people elect the House of Commons, so he should hand it back to the people’s parliament or back to the people ourselves in a Final Say referendum. Preferably both.

He cannot claim that the people want any kind of Brexit, deal or no deal, and then deny both the people and our representatives their freedom to choose.

Ian Henderson
Norwich

Criticism of Ruth Davidson betrays a double standard

Why the criticism of Ruth Davidson’s decision I wonder, seeing that the reason for standing down frequently given by male politicians is “wanting to spend more time with my family”?

Ann Smith
Southport

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