Why democracy is definitely not working

In her letter Terry Palmer, Mary Steele and me are all taken to task for our pro-Brexit views, yet from the comments in her letter Veronica appears to be anything but realistic in her case for remaining in the EU.

Rather than MEPs from the other 27 States “ganging up” on the UK, now that we have voted to leave the EU they are making every concerted effort to keep us in their union because of our current forecast net contribution to their annual budget of c £8 billion rising to £12 billion in 2019.

Loss of our contribution will cause the EU severe financial difficulty.

Although their Parliament works on a committee basis the UK is still outnumbered when it comes to voting for recommendations to the main Parliament, whether it be at committee level or a vote of all 751 MEPs. If the other 27 States’ representatives do not agree with our proposals they will vote against them if it is not in their best interest.

Veronica lists some beneficial outcomes of the in-depth discussions held by these committees, cleaner air and beaches, legislation on food safety and environmental and consumer protection, together with stronger workers’ rights. She fails to acknowledge that these are mainly non-financial/economic benefits to the UK.

Set these “benefits” against the price of our being shackled to the EU and they pale into insignificance against the cost to the UK both in financial and constitutional terms.

Loss of border control and uncontrolled migration, loss of fishing grounds, loss of our judicial authority, loss of our National Sovereignty.

We have lost and are losing all of these UK rights while still being a major net contributor to the EU Parliament budget.

Veronica states that many of the leave promises have turned out to be false yet fails to name any. By contrast ex- Chancellor George Osborne’s prophecies of doom and gloom if we leave have nearly all failed to materialise – the only correct one being the pound being devalued – but it is now recovering. There is no reason why we cannot continue trading with the EU as a non member of the Common Market and vice-versa – unless it be a potential financial loss to their budget.

Democracy is definitely not working, where non -acceptance of a full Brexit by the majority of the UK Parliament MPs is concerned. The people voted to leave the EU and by association the common market. They did not vote for a hard or soft exit – just to leave as soon as possible. Parliament gave the electorate the right to vote for this at the referendum because they did not feel that they were able to make this choice on such a massive constitutional matter.

The reality is that the people have spoken and decided to leave the EU – that is democracy.

What is not democracy is for those MPs who passed the vote to the people to now ignore their wishes and put their own selfish views forward in Parliament with a view to thwarting Brexit and having a second referendum.

Cyril Olsen

Busk Meadow, Sheffield, S5