The Tories' attitude towards Brexit shows they’re not putting the country’s interests first

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It’s obvious Theresa May has no intention of compromising, and is playing another game with her cross-party talks. She is still trying to run down the clock and push her heavily defeated dodgy deal through – having asked for a short extension that has already been predicted and rejected by the EU. We don’t need to “ask” Europe for an extension since the House can revoke Article 50 anytime.

If that doesn’t happen, we could now very easily crash out of the EU without a deal on Friday – even though the vast majority of MPs would prefer one of the soft Brexit options to both May’s deal and a no-deal hard Brexit.

It’s very easy for MPs to rank their Brexit choices so the most popular eventually comes to the top – with transferable votes or multiple rounds seeing the least voted for knocked out (like leadership contests). A customs union or common market 2.0 would likely prevail, shining a light on the only way forward. And a majority of MPs would probably back a confirmatory referendum when there is only one option left on the table.

Unfortunately, for the Conservatives it’s never been about the national interest – it’s about party identity. Expect the hard Brexiteers to wreak more havoc this week in their relentless pursuit of power as they try to push the country over the cliff edge into a hard Brexit. Their success will be Britain’s failure and isolation – as well as resigning the vast majority of us to a poorer future.

Stefan Wickham
Oxted

Mark Carney has basically said he thinks a no-deal Brexit would be an economic disaster. Boris Johnson and other rabid Brexiteers implied pre-referendum that a no-deal Brexit would be a walk in the park. Why on earth does no one ask Johnson if he thinks the governor of the Bank of England is an economic lightweight and if not, exactly where does he think Carney is going wrong?

Steve Bloom
Carmarthenshire

Do the six million signatures or one million marchers indicate a decisive majority for Remain? The short answer is of course no, they are not a substitute for a referendum, but they do amount to evidence that it is worth putting it to the test in one.

I believe that the phenomenal scale of these events is due to not just an impassioned minority in a coordinated campaign but a reflection of the public mood.

The atmosphere back in 2016 was quite different. The prospect of leaving the EU seemed, to many, like a relatively easy fix to one of our perceived problems, with the prospect of freeing up cash for public services, stemming the growth in population, and restoring the full powers of decision making to our national institutions.

Things may seem quite different now nearly three years later. It is going to cost a lot of money to leave, net immigration has fallen since then and our national politicians don’t seem capable of any decision-making.

Opinion polls would not have hinted at the massive discrepancy between the scale of Remain and corresponding Leave petitions and marches. I predict that another referendum will yield a more decisive Remain vote than opinion polls are currently suggesting.

Philip S Hall
Northampton

On World Health Day, there is one priority

World Health Day, celebrated annually on 7 April, is a unique opportunity to raise awareness about the overwhelming plight of millions of people who continue to be scarred by implacable poverty, homelessness, unemployment, gender and income inequities, far-right terrorism, antisemitism, white supremacy, hate speech, climate calamity, environmental degradation and who lack access to health and social protection.

The theme of this year is universal health coverage. This is not only a moral obligation, a political primacy but an indispensable human right and the centrepiece of the sustainable development agenda too.

Time to spur efforts towards creating an inclusive, diverse, equitable, affordable and resilient health systems that withstand shocks, forge mutual-learning experiences and long-lasting relationship between all stakeholders, boost economic prosperity and growth and improve lives.

Dr Munjed Farid Al Qutob
London NW2

What the worrying home schooling figures tell us about society

If someone had asked me how many children are home schooled before reading the very fine article by Janet Street-Porter, no way would I have guessed a figure even near to 60,000.

Leaving aside for now the glaringly obvious causes such as the financial crisis in schools, teacher shortages and grammar schools, we must look at the rather more concerning issues just below the surface: firstly, pure "Trumpian" thinking that you are not interested in anything outside your own backyard and ignore experts, then the fear of your children meeting someone from another religion or (even any religion if you are a militant atheist), or another sexual orientation or gender identity.

“Foreigners” are another great worry – heaven forbid little Johnny must sit near one. Next we have the crazy vaccination deniers, probably only around 5 per cent but still very worrying to put it mildly.

There was recently an article in a quality paper quoting parents who said their children were not at risk as they never met anyone! What sane parent would seriously choose this path for their offspring.

All of the above – to a greater or lesser extent – overlap with our other major problems, namely Brexit and the rise of the far right. Unless a competent government comes along to robustly deal with the whole picture we shall see those figures easily double in, let us say, 10 years.

Goodness knows how far down the abyss we shall be by then.

Robert Boston
Kent

Trump's state of mind remains unclear

The latest quote from President Trump confused me. He said: “I never changed my mind at all. I may shut it down at some point.” This could just be an odd expression but was he referring to shutting down his mind as that has been a point of conjecture before?

Dennis Fitzgerald
Melbourne