Change is coming, if we decide to vote for it this general election

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Polls are open on Thursday from 7 - 10pm. (Daniel Leal-Olivas/PA Archive/PA Images)

People voted Leave to bring about change. But a Tory-led hard Brexit will deliver the very opposite of the change we all seek.

The economic and social hardships of our time have not been led from Brussels. They’ve not been led by any particular ethnic or religious group. They’ve been led by the political and financial elite, who have influenced the media narrative to strengthen their current status.

We are facing many challenges. Extremism, overpopulation, climate change, energy security, issues bigger than any one country. They are the things we should be talking about. Not the finer points of our trading relationship with a bloc of largely peaceful neighbours.

I’m not here to defend the EU. It too needs major change. But whether you voted Leave or Remain, you cannot deny that Brexit has dominated the headlines and distracted us from the many destructive actions of this Tory government.

And now we have a choice. We can choose not to throw more fuel on the flames. We can choose to say no to the politics of division, inequality, greed and hatred. So please vote.

Vote for whoever has the best chance to disrupt the outcome where you live. Vote for real change. Then break the echo chamber. Change the mind of just one person, and we CAN change the outcome of this election.

We can change the future.

Jon Rowe
Maidenhead

Human rights are inalienable

A basic lesson in law is needed for former Home Secretary and Prime Minister Theresa May. Human rights are inalienable; they are not sweets to be given out or taken away from any individual or group, according to the whim of political leaders.

Paul Donovan
London, E11

The wrong solutions

Theresa May wants ‘longer prison sentences’ for terrorists. That’s definitely going to deter suicide bombers, or those planning to go out in a hail of bullets.

She wants to make it easier to deport foreigners. Since it’s largely a homegrown problem, she’s (rather sickeningly) just playing the irrelevant immigration card.

Last year, she said selling arms to Saudi Arabia helps “keep people on the streets of Britain safe” even as our bombs increased the humanitarian catastrophe in Yemen, feeding a new refugee crisis.

May apparently is the only person who doesn’t know the Saudis have done more than any other country (and spent billions) to spread the extreme version of the Islam that is at the root of the threat. We should put an end to her shambolic leadership.

Stefan Wickham
​Oxted

Statesmanship v opportunism

As we prepare to cast our votes, let us spend a moment comparing the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, with our would-be Prime Minister, Theresa May.

Faced with a rampant right-wing movement in German led by the AfD, Merkel showed courage and integrity in allowing a million displaced refugees from Syria into her country. She refused to be bullied by anti-immigrant sentiments; she not only acted in a principled manner, but also pragmatically.

At a stroke she injected a cohort of young, ambitious and energetic people into her ageing population. Moreover, a high proportion of this influx is highly educated and ready to make a significant contribution to the economy.

Here at home, May saw the right-wing insurgence as an opportunity to undermine Labour in its traditional areas. She shifted the Tory party to a Ukip position on many issues and made immigration, and the control thereof, the main driver for her approach to Brexit.

Indeed, she immediately abandoned what she claimed was her position on membership of the EU and mutated into a hardline Brexiteer. This led to her willingness to abandon the single market and the customs union, thus jeopardising our whole economy.

So what we have seen is the difference between courageous statesmanship and damaging opportunism. Under Merkel, Germany and the EU will flourish; under May, the UK will founder.

Robert Curtis
Address supplied

Housing crisis

With private renters now spending more than 40 per cent of their pay cheques on rent, house prices at seven times the average earnings and homelessness on the rise, the housing crisis can no longer be ignored.

Public support for new homes has doubled since 2010. The main parties’ manifestos are rightly ambitious and unprecedentedly bold with commitments across the board to meet the need for at least 250,000 homes a year.

The housing crisis has been decades in the making, and the next government will not come good on its promises alone – it must work closely with the country’s housing experts.

Local authorities, housing associations, ALMOs, private investors, developers, architects, planners and homelessness charities are ready to work with the next Government.

With support, we can build the right homes in the right places that the nation so desperately needs.

Terrie Alafat, Chartered Institute of Housing
David Orr, National Housing Federation
Melanie Leech, British Property Federation
Anne Baxendale, Shelter
Jon Sparkes, Crisis
Alan Vallance, Royal Institute of British Architects
​Trudi Elliot, Royal Town Planning Institute
Stewart Baseley, Home Builders Federation
Hugh Broadbent, National Federation of ALMOs
John Bibby, Association of Retained Council Housing
Jo Boaden, Northern Housing Consortium
Kate Henderson, Town and Country Planning Association