Tories can't blame the councils for not building enough homes

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Sajid Javid has warned 'not in my backyard' councils will lose planning powers (PA)

Sajid Javid, Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, has announced that “nimby” (“not in my back yard”) councils failing to build enough homes will lose their planning powers. However, the reason councils do not build homes is that his own Tory Government has a longstanding policy against council housing. Or is it that “nimby” Conservative-controlled councils often vote to reject planning applications that the authority’s planning officer has recommended for approval?

This aspect of the problem would be remedied at a stroke if the law quite properly made councillors personally liable for all the legal costs of a successful appeal by the developer against such a refusal.

Andrew Hicks
Petersfield

Theresa May’s speech has not solved Brexit woes

Theresa May’s speech has not resolved the irreconcilable contradictions between her pious aspiration – to have an “ambitious” Brexit – and reality. This vacuum will now be left to be filled by the EU, which has already seen how its attempts to propose a workable solution for the Northern Ireland border were received: with outrage! I fear that this is how things will now proceed: the Government will wait for EU suggestions, only to denounce them as a sign of the EU’s arrogant and dictatorial behaviour.

I dare say this will play well to a domestic audience, and in these circumstances talks are indeed likely to break down leading to a hard Brexit. The Brexiteer faction will have achieved their goal, while the Government will be able to argue that its moderate and reasonable hopes were rejected by an arrogant and controlling EU. The resulting chaos will then be conveniently blamed on foreigners.

Adrian Cosker
Hitchin

Jacob Rees-Mogg and leading fellow Brexiteers would love to have us believe that the Prime Minister’s speech would unite our bitterly divided country behind the referendum result. They kid themselves that we will all fall into line because of some half-hearted concessions softening a hard Brexit.

I will never be reconciled to the “packet of crisps” Brexit offers. This is not to deny democracy, it’s just that democracy has to be based on honesty and no one can claim that the referendum was honest. No one knew what they were really voting for.

Brexiteers may have found appeal in a nationalistic war cry agenda echoing our colonial past and a vague unsubstantiated promise of better times to come but it’s patently obvious that the consequences were not known and they still aren’t.

Give me a European passport and I’m off!

Simon Watson
Worcester

Elitist politicians will not stop telling us what is best for us

Why do the likes of Blair and Major and other elitist politicians feel it’s acceptable to go directly against the will of the people? The 17.4 million people that voted Leave did not vote for a soft Brexit. They knew that control over mass immigration and returning sovereignty to Westminster meant leaving the single market – it was made clear to them numerous times before they voted.

There is no such thing as a soft or hard Brexit. The only Brexit there is involves leaving the customs unions and the single market. And, without wanting to get into the Brexit debate again, neither of these options will destroy our economy and revert our living standards back to the Middle Ages, which is what certain elite Remain politicians try and make out.

Lewis Chinchen
Sheffield

Long live Jeremy Corbyn voters

I see that Michael Heseltine says that voters under 40 will consider voting for Jeremy Corbyn if it will stop Brexit. I am under 70 rather than under 40. I have not voted Labour since I was at the idealistic student age. But I would vote Labour tomorrow, not just to impact on Brexit but to also prevent another Tory Government with its nasty ministers, nasty backbenchers and nasty policies.

Bernard Cudd
Morpeth

Clean meat is clearly the way forward

It is encouraging that polls already show a third of people want to eat clean meat (“Lab-grown ‘clean’ meat could be on sale by end of 2018, says producer, website, ) even before it is available and any comparative marketing has taken place. Just imagine if we were to describe how meat is currently produced – animals live in their own filth with thousands of others, are often given drugs and other additives and have been genetically manipulated to grow six times faster than natural, and often die because their bodies simply give out.

When people have an alternative, everyone will be able to consider all the downsides of conventional meat production. Once that happens, factory farmed meat will seem scary and gross, and just about everyone will go with clean meat.

Bruce Friedrich, executive director, The Good Food Institute
Washington DC

Unreasonable politicians won’t take apprenticeships seriously

I completely agree with Chris Blackhurst on the mess that has resulted from government over-interference in the operation of the apprenticeship scheme (“We’re still underestimating the power of apprenticeships and that’s ruining our economy”). But I believe there is an overarching reason for this mess and many others at a national level, regarding Brexit, the NHS etc.

The problem is with the way that our party political system operates. From the old, hard core right-wingers clinging on to their gerrymandered seats to the hipster-appealing left, the pressure to please their tribal group overcomes the necessity to do the right thing for our country. There are also inter-tribal squabbles which distract and defeat sensible policy decisions.

Peter Cole
West Woodburn