'He's brought this city into disrepute'

Let’s be perfectly clear, he’s not just overstepped the mark he’s brought this city into disrepute with his own absolute ideas about immigration and Donald Trump and all the rest of it. That is not his role. He is there for the whole people in this city. The sooner he steps down the better and the sooner Cyril Olsen stops writing this the better.

He says he was impressed by his approachable friendly manner. In other words mate you’ve been conned. He’s only out for his own ends.It may be 2018 but there’s protocol involved with any role of this nature and the fact that the Sheffield City Council have let this happen is indicative of where these people’s heads are at. He’s not funny, he’s not entertaining, he’s a pain

Mr P Gill

Sheffield, S10

Leaving will be worth it

In reply to B Heaton, The Star, August 17, I have to disagree with the comments on the EU not being bullies.

I have a penfriend of 59 years in Belgium and her and her late husband have always said if you can leave the EU then do it ASAP.

Brussels ministers are a gang of thieves and what the people pay in taxes is appalling.

Their laws regarding inheritance are disgusting and the tax paid on inheritance is astronomical. More is paid in tax than you end up with.

When Jean Claude Juncker was elected onto the EU we were in Belgium on holiday and our friends said then the EU was doomed as he was a bad one as they knew him from Luxemburg.

We need to get out of the EU and we will be a better place to live in.

Maybe struggles at first but it will be worth it.

Brenda Titterton

Chesterfield

EU has not kept peace

Like several correspondents I always enjoy reading Veronica Hardstaff’s eloquent arguments for the EU.

However there is one argument that she repeats like a Buddhist mantra.

That argument is that the EU has kept the peace in Europe since 1945.

For a variety of historical reasons which have been stated previously, that simply is not the case, certainly in Western Europe as anyone remotely familiar with post war Europe knows.

Veronica, no matter how many times you repeat it, it ain’t going to convince us. For reasons of realpolitik, a failure to challenge it is to endorse it.

Ron Clayton

Sheffield, S6

The people voted out

I read with interest Veronica Hardstaff’s letter, “Ask people if this is what they really want”, Star, August 14; interest being the key word.

From this and previous correspondence the lady appears to be a diehard EU supporter. All credit to her stance and for sharing her thoughts with Star readers. To support and perhaps explain her very strong pro-EU views, she may wish to declare an interest to the public in that, from 1994-99, she was the Lincolnshire and Humberside Labour elected Member of the European Parliament, having previously been an SCC Labour councillor from 1971-77.

This undisclosed interest can be perceived by some to perhaps justify Matthew Hobson “accuses me of hypocrisy for supporting UK Parliamentary sovereignty and our membership of the European Union.”

In her latest anti Brexit contribution, Veronica states that “the nations of Europe have voluntarily agreed to pool that part of their sovereignty which concerns the Single Market.” As an unsuspecting voter conned by Edward Heath in the 1970s into joining a Common Market solely as a trading partner, I can assure Veronica that there was never any mention to the people of pooling part of our national sovereignty at that time and subsequently. Similarly in the run up to the referendum there was no mention whatsoever to the electorate of it being advisory only. Shades of Ted Heath again!

The European Court of Justice may well exist to rule on trade disputes, but from increasing media reports this body is getting involved with much more than this when ruling in other cases brought before it. Veronica continues to bury her head in the sand when she asserts that peace in Europe and freedom from being overrun by foreign armies for the past 70 years is directly down to the EU. She conveniently does not mention our being a member of the American led NATO and the fact that we have a nuclear deterrent, this being the real reason for our living in peace with the western world, and long may it continue.

Veronica places great emphasis on the potential economic difficulty of our leaving the EU.

Such crystal ball forecasts can just as well be made against the other 27 member states, many of them trading at favourable terms with the UK.

The doom and gloom predicted by the Government, establishment and the remain camp have all proved to be false, the improved economic and reduced unemployment figures being a testament to this.

Mention is made of the overspend of the Leave campaign, but rightly or wrongly, this money did not come from the public purse. Contrast this expenditure to the £8 million of taxpayers money spent by David Cameron and the Tory government to send to every household in the country a comprehensive pamphlet extolling the virtues of our remaining in the EU- money down the drain.

In conclusion Veronica, what is it that you do not understand about the word “democracy”? In this country a majority of one wins any democratic vote. To class a 1.4 million referendum Brexit majority as a very narrow margin indicates that you are having difficulty in understanding the word.

Of one thing I am certain, if the remain team had won the vote even by one vote, let alone 1.4 million, they would all be telling the Brexiteers to abide by the democratic majority vote, including you Veronica.

Cyril Olsen

Busk Meadow, Sheffield, S5