Letters: Barack Obama wades into Brexit debate

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

Obama is advocating for the UK to stay in the EU (AP)

Your correspondents (Letters, 23rd April) parroting Boris Johnson's predictable outrage at President Obama's remarks about the harsh realities Britain would face outside the EU seem, like Boris, to have overlooked the first two words in the name of the President's country.

America's strength comes in large part through being a successful union of 51 diverse states. There are huge differences between, for example, Missouri and California yet they can trade, and their citizens travel freely without raising any eyebrows.

It's a mark perhaps of lingering post-Empire arrogance that so many British citizens have apparently been convinced by ambitious oddball politicians that we, who together make up less than 1 per cent of the world's population, could prosper alone in the globalised twenty-first century and that other countries would be falling over themselves to offer us favourable trading deals.

Brian Hughes

Cheltenham

Just imagine the furore there would be if our head of state had flown to New York, delivered speeches urging Americans to vote for Donald Trump, and threatened that there would be consequences if they voted instead for Bernie Sanders.

For his part, Obama is nakedly attempting to interfere in our internal democratic processes (such as they are) in a way which would not be tolerated in his own country.

Michael McCarthy

London

Yugo Kovach, David Kilpatrick and J H Moffatt all criticise Barack Obama for having the temerity to recommend that the UK remains in the EU (Letters, 23 April).

If one views America as a Commonwealth of individual states which are in effect separate countries, making their own laws and levying their own taxes while accepting that certain things such as defence and currency are organised federally, it puts a different complexion on the situation. This parallels the ideals of a federated Europe, with each national state taking their own decisions on laws and taxes but accepting a supranational element for the common good.

The Brexiteers are acting like the Southern secessionist states prior to the Civil War. If they had won, it is unlikely that America would be the powerful country it is. Britain outside of Europe would be like Virginia outside the USA - surviving yes, but a very small fish in a very big pond.

Patrick Cleary

Devon

Where on earth is Boris Johnson coming from? Obama speaks as President of the United States - the clue is in the title: the most successful-ever union of states exercising a fair degree of independence within the whole, but far more integrated that anything proposed for the EU.

Mike Brayshaw

Worthing

Andrew Grice thinks that Obama's comments are a positive game changer in the debate. Obama's comments, or perhaps, “ threat” that the UK would be at the back of the queue in trade deals if it left the EU, I found patronizing and insulting and I am a voter for Remain!

John Edgar

Blackford

This is the first time I have written a “Letter to the Editor” but I am so incensed by Obama's false claims that he wants us to stay in the EU for our own good. It is patently obvious that he wants us there as the only member who speaks his language in both senses of the word. The US have been unsuccessfully trying to do a trade deal with the EU for a long time and he knows that most of the other EU states resent the US for its dominance. He then adds insult to injury by saying that we will be “back of the queue” when it comes to trade deals with the US if we leave. This is an idle threat as, of course, America will do trade deals with us as it will be in their interests to do so. Finally he needs to do his homework and realize that pretty well all our requests or objections have been over-ruled by the EU so, in fact, we do not have any more influence there that he does.

Jim Parker

Warwickshire

Boris has said that the USA would not surrender sovereignty as the UK is being invited to do.

He omits to mention that the USA has gained its present position because all of the individual states did surrender much of their sovereignty in order to become a federal superstate. In other words, they are successful because they are ahead of us in the sovereignty surrendering stakes.

Steve Ford

Haydon Bridge

Having just returned from the USA where I visited Texas, several other states and the Alamo, it seems to me that we have much to learn from the USA and President Obama about managing a union of (sovereign) states. The USA thrives because it knows how to manage the legitimate, self-governing needs of 50, semi-autonomous states in the global context. From this it is evident that what the EU needs is continuous evolutionary reform in which the UK remains an example of a hitherto successful union with a significant and crucial role.

David Rhodes

Nottingham

Scottish National Party

Nicola Sturgeon is a highly - regarded political operator. Her slick PR team is relentlessly effective. But has she made a tactical error in being too honest in her manifesto?

She admits she'll spend her next parliamentary term - in its entirety, if necessary - working hard to convince the majority who disagree with her ambition to break-up the UK. We've watched the SNP lose focus on the economy and public services time and again over the last five years as it obsessed over the constitution. Now it seems the next five will be the same.

Martin Redfern

Edinburgh