Sir, – In Kathy Sheridan's otherwise excellent piece (Opinion, December 13th) concerning the utter political lunacy taking place this side of the Irish Sea, I'm confused by her astonishment at Jeremy Corbyn's apparent inaction on the subject.
I am not a Labour party member, supporter or voter, but I have to admire the way Corbyn has managed to maintain relative calm and unity within the Labour Party while the Brexit debacle creates a monumental schism down the centre of British society.
By emphasising the importance of jobs and living standards, Labour’s shadow Brexit secretary (and former director of public prosecutions) Keir Starmer has demonstrated that he is by far the most competent and qualified individual to steer the party (and the country) through the Brexit quagmire.
The result of the Brexit referendum was determined by low-paid residents of the former industrial heartlands of the north of England and south Wales who felt abandoned by London and Brussels and found an easy foe in the EU thanks to the UK tabloids and the recent steel scandal.
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Forcing the Labour Party to take a more forceful anti-Brexit position would be a slap in the face to those voters, resulting in a collapse of the recently reinvigorated Labour mandate and a return of Ukip, while improving absolutely nothing in the UK parliament or Brexit negotiations in the short-term.
This is a time for pragmatism and cool heads, while consistently challenging and holding the Tory government to account at every stage by highlighting their incompetence.
A general election is coming very soon and once in power, Labour – presumably with a coalition partner – will be in a much stronger position to negotiate a settlement without the swivel-eyed loons of the Conservatives and DUP breathing down their necks. – Yours, etc,
CIAN CARLIN,
Wightman Road,
London, England.
Sir, – Kathy Sheridan wonders how the Remain side missed so many open goals. Maybe they couldn’t see behind Boris’s bus. – Yours, etc,
DAVID MURNANE,
Dunshaughlin, Co Meath.
Sir, – We owe a big thank you to David Davis for the timing of his comment that the recent deal the UK had with the EU was just a statement of intent, rather than something legally enforceable.
He was living in an alternative world of Brexit-speak where an accord is not legally binding, where we can, in effect, have Northern Ireland simultaneously inside and outside the EU and the UK, where we can have a real and a virtual border at the same time, a world where black can mean white and fudge is the order of the day; and where there is no need to undertake an assessment of the impact of leaving the EU.
Had he waited until the next phase started, the EU might not have been alerted to his double-think and double-speak. He jumped the gun and they have come down on him and his government like a ton of bricks, stating that there can be no retreat from the accord reached last week.
In order to get to phase two, he and his boss Theresa May have had to accept that a deal is a deal. His initial intervention and the subsequent enforced clarification have effectively painted the UK negotiators into a corner from which there will be no fudge, no backtracking, no reneging of the agreement and no easy way out. – Yours, etc,
BOBBY CARTY,
Templeogue, Dublin 6W.
Sir, – Susan McKay's article "No hard border, No EU red tape" (News, December 9th) gives an interesting insight into some unionist reasoning for leaving the EU in the mundane area of animal manure.
Manure is among the major contributors to water pollution and the UK, together with all other member states, adopted the EU nitrates directive in 1991 in order to address this pollution at source and so reduce environmental and economic costs and improve water quality.
The implementation of this directive in Northern Ireland is primarily the responsibility of the relevant authorities there. The periods when manure may not be applied are decided largely on the basis of temperature and rainfall for the very good reasons that grass does not grow at low temperature and manure run-off into streams and rivers including the Lough Erne complex is greatest during low growth and high rainfall periods (winter) and in the aftermath of heavy rain as occurred last summer.
The UK minister with responsibility for the environment and agriculture, Michael Gove, has indicated that the UK will press ahead with an ever greener agenda which implies even higher standards beyond the current EU baseline for water following Brexit.
This suggests greater strictures on manure management than today. As a result, “red tape” or, more precisely, regulatory requirements on farmers and contractors seem more likely to increase than diminish in Northern Ireland. – Yours, etc,
MICHAEL HAMELL,
Former chairman of the EU
nitrates committee,
Adjunct professor of
Agriculture,
UCD, Dublin 4.