So the Ditchley Park retreat held a cross-party private discussion last week about how to make Brexit work better with our neighbours in Europe (“Secret cross-party summit held to confront failings of Brexit”, News). If they had been reading William Keegan’s splendid columns in the Observer since 2016, they would have known the answer: we can’t. Brexit was won by a very small margin, with only around a third of the electorate actually voting Leave, because people were lied to and encouraged in xenophobic thinking. Brexit is failing to deliver on its promises, not because the Tories haven’t done it properly, but because it was never a viable proposition, as is now obvious with its dire impact on the UK economy.
The answer is not to rejoin the EU, as some would like. What should happen is this: propose to the EU that we rejoin the single market and the customs union. This would be of huge benefit to the country and its economy and would immediately solve the Northern Ireland border problem. And though the off-the-dial Brexiter wing of the Tory party would rail against this, I am confident that a large majority of the UK citizenry would support it.
Mary Pimm
London E9
Fewer births, better planet
Martha Gill takes it for granted that the fall in the birthrate is a bad thing (“Why a shortage of Mr Rights means single mothers hold the key to the falling birthrate”, Comment). However, the fall in birthrates across the world should be hailed as the most encouraging development in resisting the increasing threat from the environmental crises that threaten us. We should be welcoming a reduction for the foreseeable future as the best hope we have for a livable planet.
Stephen Smith
Glasgow
Joy and despair of Iraq march
Thank you to Tim Adams for the article on the Iraq war protest of 20 years ago (“The greatest march”, Focus). I will never forget that day. After travelling from the north-west to London, I felt hopeful and strengthened by the sheer mass of people and the diversity of my fellow demonstrators. Sadly, I will also never forget the morning the invasion of Iraq started. I was attending a training weekend for a charity I was involved with. As I prepared for the first day, I switched on the TV news. When I saw the footage of the bombs dropping, the fire and the chaos, I burst into tears. Full participation in the weekend was hard, as we were all overwhelmed with anger and grief – and yes, shame, that this was our government unleashing such violence and horror.
The article brought back those initial feelings of hope and belief in the power of the people, but also the feelings of anger and grief, because nobody listened. Now in my late 70s, I still believe in the power of people coming together to stand up for peace. Although in today’s world it is harder to hang on to hope, we must not give up.
Angie Woods
Widnes, Cheshire
The Observer ignored Scotland in its account of the protests against the Iraq war. I joined around 100,000 others in the centre of Glasgow wearing a copy of my Labour party card enlarged around my neck reading “Joined 1966, quitting now”. It was great to know that there were more than a million in London, but per capita Scotland outdid them. Much good it did us.
Margaret Squires
St Andrews, Fife
In praise of red tape
How brave of Will Hutton to go out on a limb and hail the virtues of red tape (“Rees-Mogg’s crazed tilt at red tape is quixotic nonsense. We need regulation to survive”, Comment). Nearly 40 years ago, the opposite case was preached to me by Tony Blair, Labour’s newly appointed shadow trade minister. Blair and Labour were cosying up to the business community and red tape was seen as a restraint on the freedom of business to grow and develop. Now that the widespread removal of red tape in the economy has landed the UK at the bottom of the pile, a return to some regulation on business would bring the rogues to heel, raise standards and add to wider prosperity.
Nick Kochan
London N8
School standards too high
As a classroom teacher, it is interesting to read Michael Savage’s policy perspective on the contention that a quarter of a million children enter secondary school without basic maths and English (“Two-fifths of primary pupils failing to hit maths and English targets”, News). The article takes views from leaders on all sides of the debate, but fails to address a key issue: that expected standards are too high. Children and teachers are enduring a taxing curriculum to which, it seems, leaders only want to apply more pressure. The end product of these expectations is micro-managed lessons, which often result in far fewer opportunities for speech and language-based activities, tying young children to desks.
Post-Covid, if schools are to truly support parents, they cannot be a source of stress. If Sir Keir Starmer wants the full support of parents and teachers at the next election, a review of the strangulating curriculum and standards is required so children can truly flourish in their formative years.
Mike Baker
London E4
Solidarity with Ukraine
I write in response to the article by Andrew Rawnsley (“Putin’s war has reinvigorated the west’s defence of liberty. That unity must not crack now”, Comment). I am a sponsor of a young family from Kyiv. They live with my family in the UK. The husband/father is in Ukraine. They have lived with us since last June, and arrived traumatised and with zero English. They travelled back home at Christmas and Putin began the bombing almost as soon as they arrived. They had a near miss when a shot-down drone landed in the street next to their apartment block.
Rawnsley is absolutely correct about unity not cracking. We are less than human if we do not support Ukraine in defeating the barbaric and imperialist invading kleptocratic dictatorship of Putin and his acolytes. Ukraine is full of people, human beings, just like ourselves. Yet, almost a year ago, Putin’s unprovoked invasion tried to crush their dreams. We cannot fail them. Not today, not tomorrow or ever.
Sara Goodwin
Loughborough, Leicestershire
Johnson’s unearned income?
You state that Boris Johnson has earned almost £5m since leaving office in September (“Johnson’s Bard book put on hold for memoirs”, News). Would it not be more accurate to say that he has been paid almost £5m?
Alison McIntosh
Dundee
