Reader's letter: "I firmly believe we are better out of the corrupt system that the EU has become"

This is the same council which has over spent by £43 million or there abouts and is raising the ‘rates’ of the citizens of Sheffield to the max.

However the topic that most raised my interest was that by B Heaton from Doncaster regarding Brexit.

B Heaton starts by referring to the referendum as ‘basically’ an opinion poll.

Strange choice of wording.

If it was merely an opinion poll then Prime minister would have or could have simply dismissed it as not being an official referendum.

The Oxford dictionary refers to a referendum as “referring of a question to the people of a country etc. for direct decision by a general vote". Nothing basic about that.

At the risk of boredom by The Star readers I will quickly go through a few items that some quickly forget.

We joined the EEC (European Economic Community) in 1973 it was then regarded as the Common market, the UK then was given a referendum in 1975 to either stay or leave. Over 67 per cent of the voting population voted to remain.

Bare in mind we applied to join the EEC in 1963 and again in 1967 but was rejected by the then president of France General De Gaulle.

Roll the years on a little to June 2016 when David Cameron told us this was a once in a lifetime referendum to either accept the EU or leave, 51.9 per cent of the voting population (those that could be bothered that is) decided to leave. Cameron then threw his ‘Teddy’ out and resigned as both Prime Minister and political leader of the Conservative party.

Now if like me you are a dubious sole, you may wonder why in 1975 two thirds of the voting population wanted to remain in the Common Market but a little over 40 years on more than half of those prepared to vote, voted leave.

Call me naive if you wish (or anything else if it suits you) I won’t be either bothered or offended but look at what we have given in the past to a organisation that has neither country nor common language or even policies that are not favourable to all.

Since joining the Common Market we have lost our ship building, fishing industry, steel production, coal production… the list goes on. Most of our businesses are controlled by other nations and not merely the EU. We have a NHS which is the envy of the world, we have a social system and an education system second to no other.

I do accept that over the years they have been over looked and I accept those are problems that need serious efforts to repair.

The French President in particular is doing his damnedest to undermine the UK, not because he likes us but because him like others want the £millions that we once provided.

B Heaton says the time has come for the 51.9 per cent to allow the government to change the constitution and that we have been conned by wealthy politicians.

Again a strange choice of words, most politicians wanted us to remain (presumably to top up their retirement packages).

This referendum was voted on by the people of this country and they, as I did, know that this was a once in a lifetime choice.

I cannot speak for the rest of the country but firmly believe we are better out of the corrupt system that the EU has become.

Five years down the line and still we have some moaning, I think it’s time those 48.1 per cent supported their country, together we can make a big difference and put the “Great” back into Britain.

Ron Sanderson

Intake, S12