Dear Sir,
I refer to Cllr. JD Clare’s letter, on the above subject, in the ‘Newton News’ of 30th March 2015 and would comment follows:
1. Alleged plagiarism by Cllr. Arun Chandran.
This appears to be a matter between Mr Brendan O’Neil and Cllr. Chandran. However, given that the views expressed, allegedly by Mr O’Neill, are in support of ‘Brexit’ and that the democratic will of the people for Brexit is still under attack, I’m sure that Mr O’Neill will be pleased that his alleged views have received another public airing!
2. Upholding Democracy.
At the General Election following the Leave Referendum, both main political parties had leaving the EU in their manifestos. It was only after the election that some Labour MPs, started to change their mind and to agitate for staying in the Customs Union and/ or the Single Market. This is undemocratic! It is a betrayal of about a third of Labour voters who had voted Leave and believed the Labour Manifesto promise to Leave. The Remain Camp had made it clear that a vote to Leave would mean leaving all the EU institutions and in particular, the Single Market and the Customs Union. I expect that Cllr. JD Clare will use his influence in Labour/ Momentum to encourage Labour MPs to honour the Labour Party Election Manifesto! Not to do so would be undemocratic!
3. Labour’s Common Sense
Surely, this heading is an oxymoron! When I was canvassing for Leave I was, on numerous occasions, accused of being ‘Racist’. However I’m not racist and fail to see how wanting to take back control of an openly racist immigration system and setting up a new system with granted the same rights to EU migrants and migrants from the rest of the world, can be described as being racist. For your information Cllr. JD Clare, I believe that insinuating that a non-racist is ‘Racist’ is tantamount to a ‘Hate Crime’ in itself! Also, I will not take such insinuations, against anyone who voted Leave, from a member of the Labour Party which has been accused, by its own members, of being unwilling / unable to stamp out anti-semitism among its members and supporters. How can anyone be a member of, or support, such a party? Democracy would be better served if Labour Party members dealt with this matter rather than ignoring the Brexit majority, and campaigning for us to leave the EU, in name only.
Labour, and indeed Cllr. JD Clare, appear not to have the common sense to realise that the majority of North East Labour voters who voted to Leave, did so because they wanted a change to the governance of the North East. The North East did not get its fair share of investment under Blair or Brown and looked like getting very little more under Cameron (the Northern Powerhouse?). It should be noted that London and the South East voted to Remain in the EU; “Turkeys do not vote for Christmas”. The Labour Party is scared of losing its power base in London if it supports the proper Brexit wanted by the majority of its voters in the rest of the country, especially in the North East.
Cllr. JD Clare’s argument is almost a re-run of Polly Toynbee’s,”Only a lunatic would vote for Brexit”.
Brexit could have been easy, quick and a lot less expensive if the Labour Party had honoured its Manifesto and assisted the elected Government in achieving a good deal with the EU. Common sense says that the EU, which exports more to the UK than it imports from the UK will not want any duties to apply or any other impediments to the free movements of goods.
During the Brexit Referendum our MP, Phil Wilson, flew the flag for “Remain”. Perhaps he would like to grace these columns again with his views on the current Labour Opposition antics to deny Brexit, and more importantly, on his views on the alleged anti-Semitism in Labour Party and the Party’s actions/inactions to eradicate this.
Yours sincerely,
Alastair P.G. Welsh
