Opinion

Request for rethink on Brexit is not an unreasonable ask

There was something profoundly depressing on BBC Talkback (January 4), to hear the Brexiteers one after one attack Tony Blair for, as they perceived it, daring to thwart the ‘will of the people’ by suggesting it might be a good idea to think again on Brexit in 2018 before it’s too late. The adage of there being none so blind as those who will not see is particularly apt when I daily witness Brexiteers attack anyone who might just happen to disagree with their partisan view of the world.  Instead of ‘shooting’ messenger Blair on sight it just might be a good idea to listen to his message first and then shoot if you must.

With the indignant Brexiteers, the preposterous cheek of an opposing opinion on Brexit makes me want to both laugh and cry at the same time. If I hear one more time from a Brexiteer that ‘the people have spoken’ and a second referendum would be profoundly undemocratic, then I want to scream too. Can I point out that a mere 37 per cent of the registered electorate voted Leave, which means 63 per cent either voted to remain or didn’t vote at all. And this is not counting the seven million people eligible to vote but who aren’t even on the register. Hardly a resounding mandate for what many regard as the most important decision the UK has taken since World War Two, a vote taken against a backdrop of highly dubious argument   on the Leave side.

The real reason why the Brexiteers have set their faces against any reasoned argument against Brexit, considering the hard facts now emerging, is that they just don’t want to hear. They choose to ignore the mounting evidence that Brexit will be a disaster for the UK, preferring still to engage in bluster and bully-boy attacks against what they call the ‘Remoaners’. They will not countenance another referendum, not because it’s undemocratic (the opposite is in fact true) but because they are afraid they will lose the vote when people see just how damaging Brexit will be.

The Financial Times recently calculated that Brexit is already costing the UK almost £350m a week – the same sum the Brexiteers promised would be spent on the NHS post-Brexit. And let’s look at a few of the other Brexit effects that the naysayer Brexiteers deny: the OBR predictions for UK economic growth average 1.5 per cent for the next five years at least; the UK is now last in the G7 growth rate when it was first in 2015/16 – the year before the Brexit vote; inflation is now running at over 3 per cent for the first time in years – costing the average household an extra £400 a year; the collapse in the value of the pound against the euro; plus the fact that we now know the UK is facing a divorce bill of around £39bn. And all for what? Just so

as we can ‘take back control’ as the Brexiteers put it?


Control over our own economic self-destruction is a noble aim for some I’m sure, but not for me.  

Many Brexiteers I know would rather don sackcloth and ashes than admit they might be wrong.


All that Blair is arguing is that citizens ought to have the right to change their minds once the terms for leaving the EU are fully known. As he puts it: “The issue is whether as facts emerge we have the right to change our mind as our perception of reality becomes better informed.”


Surely another chance to decide based on truth rather than lies is not an unreasonable ask?

EAMON CASSIDY


Omagh, Co Tyrone

Catholic Church still trying to hold moral high ground

I read with exasperation the new year pastoral message from Archbishop Eamon Martin urging Catholics to lobby their public representatives not to proceed with the proposed relaxation of the Republic’s abortion law, reiterating the Church’s teaching that abortion is ‘always evil and can never be justified’.  Far be it from me to lecture Archbishop Martin on the Church’s teachings but in fact the Catholic Church’s position on abortion is only 149 years old.

In 1591, Pope Gregory XIV determined that no homicide was involved if abortion took place before the foetus was infused with a soul, known as ‘ensoulment’. This was believed to occur at ‘quickening’, when the woman detected the foetal movement for the first time which took place at 166 days of pregnancy, almost 24 weeks. That is the current legal limit for abortion in the UK. It was not until the 1869 document Apostolicae Sedis that Pope Pius IX declared the penalty of excommunication for abortions at any stage of pregnancy.

I find it morally reprehensible that after all the scandals that have rocked the Catholic Church over the past decade that they still attempt to maintain the moral high ground in society. Women don’t want abortions; they need them, and the reason why a referendum is being called in the Republic is that more than 4,000 women and girls are being exported to the UK and beyond to access reproductive healthcare or attempting to access abortion pills online if they cannot afford to travel.

Many Catholics disagree with the hierarchy’s stance. Catholic women are wise. They know that when it comes to decisions about reproductive health, following their conscience is the best thing they can do.

CLARE BAILEY MLA


Green Party, South Belfast

Imbecilic behaviour of clown prince of politics

Most people view our political reps in a very dim light, unfairly at times perhaps, but given the time an opportunity will arise where they will demonstrate that this judgment was fully justified. And in the actions of Mr McElduff on the Kingsmill anniversary we have been given a glimpse of how imbecilic and infantile local politics and its politicians can be.

His behaviour in no way represents the nationalist community who have acted under the most extreme provocations and egregious acts of calumny from the state and the press over the deaths and injury of loved ones in a dignified and graceful manner worthy of the utmost praise and yet contrast that with the actions a man who sees himself the clown prince of local politics.

He has in his behaviour almost single-handedly undermined and diminished his community in the eyes of many. He has gift-aided a platform for those who have never required an excuse or rationale to blacken and tarnish our community. They have been swift in their condemnation, rightfully so you would think, but history has shown that condemnation will not rest with one man or one party but by their extension the guilt will be applied to the wider nationalist community.

His party have acted decisively in the immediate aftermath of his actions. It is to their credit it has been seen to be swift and effective in this matter. 

To the community that has endured the unendurable, borne the outrages of unspeakable crimes and the falsehoods associated to these, not least from the same sources that condemn now – Mr McElduff owes a heartfelt and sincere apology. 

LAURENCE TODD


Belfast BT15

Pro-life views must not be silenced

Packie McDonald (December 28) seems to have his wires crossed regarding my letter about Sinn Féin and its abortion policy.  My comments were specifically directed at this party as their conference had just finished. I had hoped that some of their delegates would object publicly to the stance taken by the party leadership, but sadly this didn’t happen. It seems Sinn Féin voters have also taken a vow of silence.


Mr McDonald claims that if you threaten to leave or not vote for the likes of Sinn Féin, you let the abortionists go unchallenged.

My point is that if you remain with a party which has an abortion policy, and stay silent, you reach the same obnoxious goal. Those pro-life delegates and voters of Sinn Féin must let Adams and McDonald know, that their views will not be silenced. Remember there will be no second chance.

J DIAMOND


Coleraine, Co Derry