Please stop treating wheelchair users as if they are invisible

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People with reduced mobility or any other special need are still people, with gifts to give and dreams to build (Getty/Vetta)

For some of us it is very difficult to connect with other people because we appear to be invisible.

My wife Peggy needed a hip replacement recently and for a while before the operation she had to use a wheelchair. This proved to be an educational experience.

Peggy has always been a glamorous woman – she likes to wear make-up and colourful clothes. Staff selling beauty products normally gravitate towards her with beaming smiles, desperate to inform her of the latest must-have look or scent.

However once in her wheelchair she seemed to disappear from view. Even when she tried to attract attention there would suddenly be something apparently urgent in the opposite direction.

When she purchased some perfume the assistant took the money from her but smiled at me, giving me her change. This invisibility wasn’t confined to shops – everywhere we went Peggy was either ignored or considered some sort of nuisance.

Although the majority of the walking community failed to see Peggy, or felt awkward and looked away, the people in wheelchairs and their companions smiled, made eye contact and spoke or waved a greeting.

In Peggy’s case the wheelchair was only needed for a short time. Once back on two feet she became visible again.

We all need to feel accepted and connected particularly when we feel vulnerable. People with reduced mobility or any other special need are still people, with gifts to give and dreams to build. The world is a kinder place when we treat people the way we would want to be treated ourselves.

When you next see a person in a wheelchair, smile and let them know that they are not invisible.

Patrick Broe
Scotland

There is no viable solution for the Irish border

I wonder how long it will be before Brexiteers come to the realisation that there is no solution to the Northern Ireland question other than either to remain in the EU, the customs union or the single market, or to trash one of the key undertakings of the Brexit campaign, a stop to migration from the EU.

Brexiteers apparently aspire to a frictionless border and hope that we can negotiate an agreement that somehow allows the free movement of goods across the border with Ireland. However, the EU has made it abundantly clear that there can be no free movement of goods without the free movement of people. Moreover, the absence of any border controls will inevitably lead to the free movement of people across the border and there would be nothing to stop would-be immigrants travelling to Ireland and entering the UK.

To prevent such migration, there has to be a hard border. If there is a hard border, there is no free movement of goods. And of course, a hard border would also be the inevitable consequence of no deal with the EU.

I just can’t see how these seemingly immutable facts can be reconciled. Solving the divorce bill problem is easy in comparison to the Northern Ireland problem, and look at how long that is taking.

Liam Fox states that “We can’t come to a final answer to the Irish question until we get an idea of the end state.” I strongly suspect that this position is aimed at kicking the issue into the long grass because he and his fellow Brexiteers can’t conceive of a solution.

Antony Robson
Westbury

The arrogance of the UK Government in its dealings with the Republic of Ireland over Brexit and the border issue knows no bounds.

There is more than a little hint of imperial arrogance in the attitude of Whitehall when it comes to the Irish threat to veto EU trade talks if there is not a solution to the Irish border issue. In essence, how dare a country of less than five million people hold the UK to ransom?

And as espoused by leading Labour Brexiteer, Kate Hoey MP, and others, if there is to be a border between Northern Ireland and the Republic then, as with Donald Trump and Mexico, the Irish will have to foot the bill.

When it comes to Ireland and the border issue, there are only three logical solutions: 1) the UK remains in the single market/customs union, 2) Northern Ireland remains in the single market or 3) border posts.

As we know, the first is not acceptable to the Brexiteers, the second is not acceptable to the DUP which is propping up May’s Conservatives, which only leaves the third – border posts on the 310-mile border.

As May said in her Lancaster speech: “Brexit means Brexit”, and this means “taking back control” of trade and immigration. Given this, the logical inevitability is a hard border on the island of Ireland and the undermining of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.

The inept handling of this matter by the UK Government has the potential to set Anglo-Irish relations back decades and it is essential that the UK Government provides a solution to the border issue and does so quickly.

Alex Orr
Edinburgh

Brexit is Northern Ireland’s worst nightmare

In response to Dora Henry’s (Letters) admonishment to Ireland about “treading on our dreams” regarding a Brexit deal.

To many of us, probably including the majority of those in Northern Ireland who voted to remain, and are part of Great Britain too last time I looked, Brexit is no dream – -it is our worst nightmare.

Julie Landragin
Brentwood

Brexit irony

You report that Tory Eurosceptics are pushing ministers for a second Commons vote on the release of the Brexit impact papers.

A second vote? Oh, the irony!

Andrew Jackson
Cardiff

Clown negotiators

The Government’s argument that unredacted Brexit research papers would undermine its negotiating position would be a lot more credible if Theresa May hadn’t already put Davis, Fox and Johnson in charge of those negotiations.

Mike Webster
Lancaster