Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

The Iraq War taught me why I need to march against Brexit this Saturday

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

Wednesday 20 March 2019 14:29 GMT
Comments
Theresa May responds to Peter Bone's warning: 'As prime minister I could not consider delaying Brexit beyond June 30'

I became a Remainer in 2003 after Tony Blair dragged us into the Iraq war. If we had been more closely allied with Europe, that might have been avoided.

I believed then that the executive had far too much power; nothing that has happened since June 2016 has persuaded me to change my mind. There is now only a week to go before 29 March, the planned departure date from the EU. And every day that passes (quite literally) provides further evidence that our deluded PM has no understanding that sovereignty belongs to parliament, not to her government alone.

John Bercow should be applauded for making a stand against Theresa May’s outrageous attempts to manipulate parliament and put party before country by letting the ERG pull her strings.

We march again on Saturday for another people’s vote. We can only hope that enough Conservative and Labour MPs get the message that ignoring us could be detrimental to their party’s future.

Susan Alexander
South Gloucestershire

Mounting evidence cannot be ignored

Vote Leave campaign group has been fined for sending text messages sent without recipients’ consent.

This, together with other doubtful means that have been uncovered to gain votes for one side or the other, must surely render this referendum illegal.

We keep being told Brexit is what the people voted for, but the evidence is surely against this. We need a new, honest referendum in which we all know what we are voting for.

Val Hatton
Address supplied

What’s there to worry about?

If the government is so sure that a twice heavily defeated, fudged bill can be presented unchanged for a third time with apparent confidence of success, why are they so worried about a second referendum?

Matt Minshall​
Norfolk

Old-fashioned rule

The speaker’s use of a 400-year-old precedent is entirely appropriate given that the prime minister is behaving like Charles I. A civil war is raging in this country and it is solely of her doing.

Peter Farrant
Blackheath, London

Jacinda Ardern is an inspiration

When it comes to political leadership and calling out Islamophobia, the contrast between the hugely impressive prime minister of New Zealand and our own prime minister is very stark indeed.

Not only does Theresa May appear to be quite happy to ignore repeated calls for a formal inquiry into the extent of Islamophobia in the Conservative Party she is supposed to be leading, but she is obviously utterly determined to turn a blind eye to the part that fake news, and Islamophobia in particular, played a part in the 2016 referendum.

Theresa May is fixated on interpreting the advisory vote of a paltry 37 per cent of the electorate as an “instruction” reflecting the “will of the people”. So what if that 37 per cent cast their vote under the sway of Nigel Farage’s Islamophobic “Breaking Point” poster and the lie that Turkey was about to join the EU and flood the UK with a potential 20 million Muslim immigrants?

D Maughan Brown
York

Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events

What a contrast between two women prime ministers of countries at opposite ends of the earth.

One of them has reacted immediately to a terrorist massacre by a demonstration of national inclusiveness. Right away she has put in place a programme of new regulations to correct her nation’s hitherto over-lax gun laws. Her public utterances have shown humanity, sensitivity and intelligence as she has attempted to unite a multi-ethnic nation in its hour of grief. Her admirable demeanour has surely impressed everyone who has listened to her.

The other prime minister has spent nearly three years doing little except pandering to a rich minority in her party while her nation struggles with poverty. She has done little to address the needs of her people while dividing her country irreparably. All she has achieved is a so-called plan to facilitate her country’s national economic suicide.

Please can we have Jacinda Ardern as prime minister of the UK?

Chris Payne
The Philippines

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in