Reader Letters

Readers react both online and offline to Alastair Campbell’s letter to Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. I don’t feel at all ashamed to say I’m sat here with tears in my eyes after reading your letter. You’re a man who has given his life to the Labour movement and your contribution has transformed lives. I was […]

Drop Project Fear and embrace a joyful, demanding, confident message about EU membership, say New European readers – that’s how we’ll reboot Remain and fight Brexit. At the top of the letters page in TNE #152 was a red bus with a doom-laden message (“UK regions face losing £8.4 billion …”). Do you really think […]

One reader thinks he has the answer to solving Brexit – and it involves David Cameron. All Boris Johnson has to do to get us out of this Brexit mess is ask the EU to go back to David Cameron’s deal. That took the UK out of ever-closer union, and reinforced our ability to limit […]

Readers react to Boris Johnson’s attempt to avoid accountability for false claims made during the EU referendum campaign. What astounds me about Boris Johnson’s court summons over accusations of misconduct while in public office is that his defence appears to be “I was campaigning”. For any chance to reconcile division in our society and restore […]

It is simply untrue for Brexiteers to claim that under a no-deal Brexit the UK could simply move to World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules and there would be nothing to fear. Putting aside the major economic damage, the UK will be unable to have frictionless, tariff-free trade under WTO rules for up to seven years […]

Readers have their say on People’s Vote campaigner Alastair Campbell being expelled from the Labour Party. I can’t understand why your editor-at-large is applying to rejoin Labour (TNE #146). The party he feels emotionally close to is dead, Corbyn’s leadership has killed it. Even if they were forced to support to a new referendum, the […]

Ten of thousands of people turned out to protest against Donald Trump’s state visit in London. Protestors get their point across in demonstrations across London against Trump’s state visit. Photo: Mike Kemp/In Pictures/Getty Images – Credit: In Pictures via Getty Images Once again the British people did not disappoint with their creative ways of showing […]

A reader points out that the ‘Code of Good Practice on Referendums’ should have been applied to the EU referendum. What most politicians have failed to point out is that since 2006 the UK has been one of 60 signatories to the ‘Code of Good Practice on Referendums’ (part of the Venice Commission). This advocates […]

‘If TIG should call by-elections so should the MPs in the ERG or linked to Momentum’ Labour and Tory representatives say MPs in the Independent Group (TIG) should call by-elections in their seats as they were originally elected on another party’s manifesto. If this is the case, why is it that MPs such as those […]

We are writing as active and committed members of the Labour Party because we feel our voice is being ignored by our own party. We enthusiastically voted for Jeremy Corbyn precisely because he promised to listen to his members and put them at the heart of everything he did. We believed that and went on […]

The Queen has attempted to rejoin the current political extremes over Brexit by pleading for a (presumably) centrist common ground on the issue. As a staunch Remainer, this for me will be impossible unless and until we have a second referendum. The first one was based on lies, alternative facts, deceit, project fear, financial irregularities […]

Readers welcome the scrapping of charges for EU citizens and have thoughts on ideas for Theresa May’s Plan B. The announcement of the scrapping of the charge for application for settled status of EU citizens is to be welcomed. The government should go one step further and grant to these same citizens the right to […]

As the vote on Theresa May’s Plan A replica approaches, with the Irish backstop still the critical obstacle, many will find it inexplicable that the party propping her up, the Democratic Unionists, are virtually the sole representative voice in Westminster for Northern Ireland where 56% voted Remain in 2016. Meanwhile the party representing the majority […]

Readers of The New European give their verdict on Channel 4’s Brexit film. Forgive me if I don’t join the chorus of approval for Brexit: The Uncivil War. As well as lying about the £350 million and Turkey, Vote Leave broke electoral rules and have been referred to the police by the Electoral Commission. They […]

A People’s Vote – or a second referendum – is the opportunity to give Britons that second chance to stop and think, writes BOB HALE. How many times have we heard someone say ‘in hindsight I would not have said that or in hindsight not done this’? Those of us supporting a People’s Vote are […]

For those who didn’t get a say in the original EU referendum they are hoping that there will be a People’s Vote so their voices can finally be heard. I am 20 years old and currently taking a second gap year to focus on the campaign I started to provide a youth voice on Brexit: […]

Why are our institutions and public servants being stopped from doing their jobs, asks a New European reader. The Met Police are stalling on an investigation of the Leave campaigns which broke electoral law because it is too ‘politically sensitive’. The head of HM Revenue and Customs has received death threats after setting out the […]

Readers react to the latest announcement from Jacob Rees-Mogg and the ERG. May it comfort readers to be reminded that a ERG is an obsolete unit of work in the metric system? An ERG of work is done when a force of one dyne moves its point of application through one centimetre. It is a […]

One reader makes a comparison of a People’s Vote to the UCAS process for applying to university. My daughter has recently turned 18 and didn’t get a vote in the referendum but, like many young people of her age, she has been making some important choices that will affect the rest of her life – […]

I wrote to my MEP Nigel Farage requesting a financial assessment of the benefits of Brexit. I was expecting a mathematical answer but was astonished to receive a reply blaming those bloody Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle: ‘May I suggest some general reading for you: Hobbes, Locke, Von Mises, Hayek, Fukuyama. The EU is based […]

Isn’t it ironic that our divided government should mark the centenary of the ending of the First World War with facile arguments over Brexit and internal feuding? If only, for the sake of the millions killed on all sides in the conflict, they could show some real magnanimity and unity with our European counterparts. John […]

I voted out in the referendum, but rapidly recovered my senses when Brexit fell prey to the far-right agenda. This stairway to heaven has become a dark passage inhabited by the dark art of data manipulation, and questions about the people behind anti-EU backers. To me it is now crystal clear that the whole Brexit […]

I noted with interest Tory trade secretary, Liam Fox, warning that a no-deal Brexit was now more likely than the UK getting an agreement with the EU. Quite bizarrely, this appears to be the same Liam Fox who little more than a year ago said that a post-Brexit free trade with the EU should be […]

In summer 2016 my wife sent to our MP a detailed response about the conduct of the referendum, outlining all our now too-familiar concerns. In summer 2016 my wife sent to our MP a detailed response about the conduct of the referendum, outlining all our now too-familiar concerns. She received an acknowledgement that her letter […]

The £39billion we have committed to pay to the EU upon our exit is NOT a gratuity or a divorce payment. It represents a legal liability. It represents historic infrastructure commitments and liabilities entered into by our nation that are to be completed by 2030. It represents the remaining 21 months of the seven-year budget […]

It would seem that one of the scapegoats being prepared for when Brexit fails are Remainers who refuse to ‘get behind Brexit’. How one is supposed to support a vacuum is beyond me. Brexit is by definition a negative, dismantling process; there is nothing there of substance to support, even if one wanted to. It’s […]

With her Chequers agreement Theresa May is not trying to dilute Brexit: she is positively trying to deliver it. It would help her cause mightily if she communicated more bluntly to the country that a Boris Brexit, of having your cake and eating it, was and is undeliverable whoever is running the country. People need […]

It was reported this month that 53% of the UK population do not identify as religious. This is what is known in Whitehall as a landslide. This is a tremendous victory for non-religious people. It’s significant and symbolic. To ignore it invites unrest and division. We must obey the will of the people. On Monday […]

I’m concerned that so far, too few Leavers seem to have changed their minds and holding a second referendum before the time is right may be counterproductive. I suspect that right now the best that could be expected would be a mirror-image of two years ago – 52/48 for Remain. The whole issue of Brexit […]

It was rich for Boris to say we were dithering about Brexit, writes Anthony West. I wonder if Boris Johnson was using the ‘royal we’ during his resignation speech. Near the beginning he says ‘we have dithered’ about Brexit. This is of course exactly what our unlamented ex-foreign secretary did in 2016 (shall I, shan’t […]

There is a lot to support in Justine Greening’s idea for a three-option People’s Vote but, as Christopher Wylie so memorably put it, Brexit is a crime scene. The side which won by 4% overspent by 10%. Three senior people in the Vote Leave, Leave.EU and BeLeave campaigns have been referred to the police. There […]

We should look to the England football team at the World Cup for some life advice, says Martin Deighton. We quite rightly persist in our efforts to win football’s World Cup and no-one suggests giving up because we have not succeeded since 1966. Making changes to the structure, the rules and the nature of the […]