Readers' letters

If you have a medical problem, you go to your doctor or a specialist for advice. Whatever you may think you know, they are the experts. They may be wrong, but they are probably right.

So it is with regard to what is likely to happen if we vote to leave the EU.

It is the job of the Governor 
of the Bank of England to advise as to the likely consequences.

He has warned us that to leave Europe will be disastrous. So has the Director of the International Monetary Fund.

So for that matter did Vince Cable, who warned us of the coming recession when nobody listened.

And when Paddy Ashdown on a recent Question Time challenged the three Brexiteers on the panel to name one recognised authority who did not take the view that to go out was imperilling our economy, they could not.

Yes, they may all be wrong, but no-one but an idiot would deny that they are probably right.

To vote to leave is at best a gamble.

And it is a gamble with the jobs and livelihoods in particular of our young people.

Much of the fresh industry in the north has come because we are in the EU.

And it can go, if we leave.

But, say the Brexiteers, if we leave, we will be free from EU regulations.

But at least 90 per cent of those regulations were backed by our own Government.

Indeed, we promoted some. And often when there has been an EU Directive, our Government has extended it to cover a wider field than the EU intended.

And if we leave, we will still be bound by most of the EU rules, without any power to alter them.

Yes, there are things wrong with the EU and we ought to be far more active in the EU to try to remedy them.

Many of us have relatives who lost their lives fighting to liberate Europe from tyranny in the Second World War.

I am old enough to remember the hope and enthusiasm with which Winston Churchill, in particular, inspired the movement to build a great Common Market which would bind together the nations of Europe and bring an end to repeated wars and destruction.

That hope and enthusiasm is still needed.

So I hope we will vote to remain in the EU. But that is not enough.

Too long we have sat on the sidelines and not given the lead to reform in Europe.

At the next European elections we should back those who both support the EU and are determined to extend our influence.

John Collins,

Address supplied

CHELSEA

Gardening is for everyone

Do I not like flower shows. Being an allotment holder for a number of years, I really hate these over-priced, over-publicised flower shows, Chelsea Flower Show being the prime example.

Millions of pounds are spent on producing these stupid showpiece layouts that a normal gardener can’t and does not even wish to aspire to. Gardening is for all and not the privileged few as these shows would have you believe.

I love my garden and wouldn’t change it one iota.

Stupid Chelsea.

JW Vintin via email

EUROPE

MP question

One has to ask the question: Should the Remain MPs have to resign if we vote for Brexit?

JA King via email