Letters: Why is Barack Obama interfering in European politics?

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Barack Obama addressing an audience at a Town Hall meeting in Westminster this weekend (Rex)

Many of your correspondents, as well as those writing in other newspapers, miss the point regarding the European Union and the Unites States of America. They US has one official language, English (albeit an American version), a unified legal system based on habeas corpus with individual states making much like the counties in this country which can instigate by-laws. It has an Anglo-Saxon culture that recognises the many different cultures of minorities, a nationally elected government, and a single currency that has been in place for centuries.

It bears no comparison with the multi-cultural and multi-lingual states in the EU, which is ruled by an unelected elite which has no allegiance to any of the 28 member countries and will only act in the interests of promulgating the “European Project” of a United States of Europe ruled from Brussels and Strasbourg. The EU is anti-democratic, corrupt, fraud-ridden and still has not had its accounts signed off for 21 years.

Like many Americans, President Obama does not understand Europe – let alone the EU –and how it works. He wants the UK to remain in the EU so that America has a voice in the corridors of Berlaymont and can somehow work as brake on the worst excesses of that organisation.

He does not understand that the Britain has very little influence across the English Channel with only 8 or 9 per cent of voting rights across the various EU institutions.

David Samuel-Camps
Eastleigh, Hants

To emphasise his point about it being in the best interest of the UK to remain in the EU, President Obama referred to the “special relationship” and the loss of life suffered during WW2 when the USA helped to defeat the Nazis.

Yes, it is true that there was much loss of life on all sides. I am old enough to remember the dark days of 1939, when Prime Minister Winston Churchill helped to rally Britain to fight for the freedom of the world against Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. At that time, the USA waited for two years to see where the wind blew before deciding whether to join in – and then did so only after Pearl Harbour, when the Germans had effectively declared war against them.

I have not forgotten lease-lend when, after D Day, we ended up in huge financial debt which the US demanded for their help, and which took so many years for the UK to pay off.

President Obama and Hillary Clinton say that it is in the UK’s best interest to stay with the EU. Translation: “It is in the USA's best interest that the UK stays within the EU”.

Barbara MacArthur
Cardiff

Yesterday Barack Obama said he needed us to remain in the EU to enable him to get through the TTIP deal. The top secret trade agreement, still under negotiation, is something the citizens of the UK and all over Europe are fighting against, so what makes Obama think we would back that or respect his opinion? He should just mind his own business and concentrate on carrying out the pledges he made, such as closing the Guantanamo Bay and protecting whistleblowers, instead of jailing more of them than every other US president combined.

Pete Cresswell
Enniskillen, Northern Ireland

The Government is treating the UK electorate totally unreasonably. What facts can help the average non-political voter to decide whether to vote “Stay” or “Quit”, when negotiations over the terms on which the UK might leave the EU have not even commenced, let alone been completed?

It is widely acknowledged that the negotiations could drag on for several years – up to a decade, according to some estimates – and if the ”EU Reforms“ recently achieved by the Prime Minister were anything by which to judge, the terms would be totally unsatisfactory to the UK.

If there were a period of uncertainty for several years, the economy, stock markets, and no doubt many other aspects of the business interests of the UK, would surely be shrouded in gloom and despondency. The economic crash in 2008 might well fade into insignificance.

Does this really leave the voter with a realistic choice? The Prime Minister has famously called the “Quit” vote a “leap into the dark”. That’s hardly a sensible option. But, having said that, are we really any clearer as to the long-term future of the EU? How long will it be before we are unwillingly part of the United States of Europe, probably with a continuation of the present non-elected governing bodies?

The EU referendum is truly a leap in the dark, whichever way we decide.

Peter Fitch
Woodbridge, Suffolk

US presidential election makes for a grim choice

When choosing a person to be US President, it is natural to pick someone you trust, respect and like. An experienced, competent individual. After all, it’s a pretty big job.

People vote for their own best interests, and this year that is no different. The top candidates seem to know what we want to hear, and they say it. The poorest and richest like the richest guy –who doesn't want more money? No one really likes Hillary Clinton, but, she is a serious candidate. With Donald Trump and Ted Cruz we have a carnival roadshow. With Bible's held high, these candidates are appealing to fear and faith.

Does anyone truly believe these are best we have in America? One of them could lead the free world – Trump, Clinton or Cruz. Have we as a country slipped so far off normal that these are our best choices? Our forefathers are spinning in their respective graves.

Norm Stewart
Florida, USA