Readers' letters - February 29

The Government is passing the buck back to us, it’s our decision, do we stay in or come out of Europe? We seem to be getting lots of information regarding the cost of staying in, £55m a day, but very little information regarding what we get back, to justify this amount.

Having not totally made my mind up, I feel strongly that we are better off in than out.

My concern is, would I be happy with this Government, (or any other one), being in total control of everything to do with our country.

My answer, NO.

If we vote to come out of Europe, while Cameron and co are in charge we will never get rid of them. They are already altering the rules on party funding, and boundary changes, to try and ensure they continue to get elected and with nobody to answer to, our prospects are not good.

We have seen them running down the NHS, our steel industry and overseeing the demise of our coal mining, while bankers and hedge fund managers continue to be safeguarded and receive massive bonuses.

Holiday entitlements, reduced working hours and employees’ rights, have only been achieved by being in Europe, being out of Europe will lead us back to the Dickensian times, something that the millionaire MPs in government would love to achieve. It’s not all about asylum seekers and immigrants coming into the country.

Mick Gethin via email

Mr Bumble and company

It was really good to see the recent BBC programme Dickensian brought into the 21st Century by the Conservative Party.

Mr Bumble, played by Boris Johnson, has spent years working in Brussels, writing articles supporting the EU in his weekly column in the Telegraph, and who can forget him dangling on a wire during the Olympic opening ceremony?

Now he’s bumbling along in a desperate bid to become the next Tory Leader.

Then we have Scrooge played by IDS, the one and only Iain Duncan Smith, who is currently stopping unemployment benefits and making it near impossible to get disability allowance for people with serious injury-related illnesses and disabilities. Humbug.

Then we saw the appearance of Fagin, played by Michael Gove, hated by teachers up and down the country.

Finally we have Miss Haversham with her own company, played by the Employment Minister Priti Patel, saying that EU judges are making a mockery of human rights as she wants to put workers back into the 18th century workhouses.

I never thought I would be in a position to support a Tory Prime Minister who has battered the working class and blamed the previous Labour Government for his ongoing austerity six years under his watch. Quite unbelievable.

I know Dickensian is returning for another 20 episodes later in the year, I only hope Bumble, Scrooge and Fagin will feel depressed after the Brexit vote.

‘Bob Cratchit’ via email

Not so brainy

Has Big Brother’s computerisation of our planet made it a superior place of habitation? It seems to me to be deteriorating at a very fast rate. The threat of war, financial depression and global warming, having a serious effect on human life!

We are supposedly the most intelligent creatures on this planet. It certainly doesn’t look that way to me! We are on the path to total destruction.

Mr J Penn

Address supplied