Rejoining the EU would be a return to sanity

Letters to the editor: our readers share their views. Please send your letters to letters@independent.co.uk

Why Britain left the EU is beyond me (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

It was with delight that I read Jon Stone’s article on the Liberal Democrat’s roadmap to rejoin the European single market. Oh, happy days. Why the UK left the EU is beyond me – probably through some skullduggery on behalf of the Conservative Party and Brexiteers. But to read that there are still sane people, even though they are politicians, in our midst was encouraging.

Britain has lost lots since leaving the EU: our standing in the world, trade with the EU, easy access to security data, free movement of people across borders and various health and welfare standards for people and animals. Britain has gained nothing by leaving the EU; self-government and immigration benefits have not materialised.

It’s refreshing to hear that we may once again be a member of the largest trading group in the world, with the safeguarding of people’s human rights in all countries involved in the “club”. We have lost so much that there is bound to be a reaction. Hopefully, this is the start of the return to sanity.

Keith Poole

Basingstoke

Reasons for rejoining

Why rejoin the EU? Trade is important but not, I believe, a major reason for rejoining.

There would be more cooperation with neighbours – united we stand. The time that needs to be taken to redraft laws and regulations would be better used in other ways. There would be less paperwork with European and Northern Irish trade.

In the EU, it would not be so easy for a government to take actions that ultimately lead to a loss of freedom. As the old adage goes: “Better inside the tent pissing out, than outside pissing in.”

Rob Alliott

Cambridge

Second and third homes

I sincerely hope our MPs will lead the way by housing Ukrainian refugees in their second (and, in some cases, third) homes.

Nigel Groom

Witham, Essex

Unisex toilets

It seems to me that every time there is an argument about who is actually a woman (or a man, for that matter), the issue of safe toilets is brought up.

Might I suggest that the answer is simply to have unisex toilets like those that exist in other countries? The downside of course is that we men would have to join the long queues for the cubicles. But maybe if that were to happen, something might be done to increase the provision of adequate facilities for all.

G Forward

Stirling

The west cannot win this war

I read Kim Sengupta’s article with great interest. I am concerned that civilian lives are being placed at unnecessary risk in Ukraine to satisfy the egos of political leaders and Nato nations.

By arming Ukrainians and encouraging them to fight to the bitter end without directly intervening, we in the west are complicit in permitting their mass murder.

President Biden correctly stated that a Third World War must be prevented. Perhaps it is time the west encouraged Ukrainian politicians to strongly consider the Russian terms to a cessation of hostilities and withdrawal of its forces, even if it means significant political compromises for Ukraine, including a temporary halt to Nato admission and granting limited autonomy to the Donbas region.

The west cannot win this particular battle, but its principles and resourcefulness can win the geopolitical war against autocracies in the long term, without making a mass grave in Ukraine inevitable.

Dr Priyad Ariyaratnam

Sheffield

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We should be doing more

In Whitehall today, a single individual who appeared to be a self-proclaimed evangelist was blasting out music on a portable speaker at the gates of Downing Street.

On the opposite side of the road, a group of Ukrainian supporters with families there were assembling to highlight what is happening in their country.

At the start of the assembly, the organiser whose parents are in Kyiv told the group she wanted to play the Ukrainian national anthem. But she had been told that playing music was not allowed. The group proceeded to sing without accompaniment. It was moving and humbling.

But it is a sign, once again, of how out of touch the government and the Metropolitan Police are. It is shameful that we are not doing more to support the people of Ukraine.

Gordon Ronald

Hertfordshire