There are many positives of the EU – here’s why we need to focus on them

Please send your letters to letters@independent.co.uk

I have signed your petition, although with some misgiving.

If we really want people to change their minds to support staying within the EU, which is surely the hope of so many other signatories, I agree strongly with those who are calling for more positivity about its benefits, how we have cooperated in shaping them and have often been at the forefront.

Doom and gloom may satisfy us Remainers but won’t cut much ice with Leavers who heard all the doom foretold last time that didn’t come to pass. Why would they believe it again when they are stuck in their negativity about all things European? If they knew more about the many benefits in kind and in beneficial policies, including those which have probably improved directly many of their lives and regions where they live, maybe they would begin to think differently.

One hopes that Leavers who bother to read a newspaper such as The Independent just may be prepared to broaden their thinking. And why not yourselves do some reporting of matters discussed in the European parliament and by the Council of Ministers – all elected by us? I’m sure that many intelligent people still think it’s only bureaucrats in Brussels who call the shots, whereas member countries ask them to come up with proposals to resolve problems as well as the Brussels civil servants themselves working up ideas for consideration by members who may after all reject them. Please keep explaining how Europe works and how in many respects it is a good deal more democratic than our own very flawed system.

I do not want to be part of an insignificant offshore island subject to the dictatorship of the US and a supplicant for crumbs dropped by others. Surely it’s better to be a proud leading member of a big international consortium, especially one not wanted by Trump or Putin just because it wields weight and can counterbalance their tyrannical tendencies. United we stand; divided we assuredly will fall – backwards.

Jane Valentine
Colchester

Gathering supplies

I am now fully prepared for a no-deal Brexit. I have stocked up on vegetable seeds and have marked out rectangles on the lawn for the veggie patches. I have searched through the loft and found my 1970s copies of Food for Free by Richard Mabey, and Self-sufficiency by John and Sally Seymour.

My friends in New Zealand have managed to get me two years’ supply of the antihypertensive drugs that keep me alive, but I’m taking up meditation in case two years’ worth isn’t enough protection against hearing more of Nigel Farage on the wireless.

I have cleaned and oiled my bicycles for when my foreign car breaks down and parts can’t be found. My wife has found her mother’s wartime recipes for snoek (look it up if you don’t know) and is reminiscing about darning socks. We have plenty of candles. Because my grandfather was Irish, I am in the process of applying for Irish citizenship in case things get just too bad. What other measures would Independent readers suggest?

In reality, I’m cycling in France for a month, and wishing I didn’t have to go home to a rapidly disintegrating Britain.

Patrick Cosgrove
Shropshire

Rees-Mogg and Bannon are a dangerous combination

Once again I find myself in total agreement with Sasha Simic (Letters).

I wrote to The Independent, early December 2017 – after the report of Jacob Rees-Mogg meeting Steve Bannon, possibly for the first time — expressing my dismay and stating that there are virtually no excuses for such behaviour.

Now here we are eight months later, and it seems to me that media coverage around such liaisons is woefully inadequate; even though other Tories now think this is acceptable behaviour for a paid representative of her majesty’s government.

There can be no upside to such collusion. Everyone must get a grip, otherwise we shall soon be facing a long descent into the abyss.

Robert Boston
Kingshill​

The Brexit hole

So preparations for the giant lorry park in Kent have been renamed “Operation Brock” – which Kent county council says stands for “Brexit Operations Across Kent”.

That’s BROAK, possibly an economic prediction for our previous specks post Brexit. Surely Brexit Operations Cross Kent was the intention.

Either way we’re still digging ourselves into a deep hole.

Chris King
London N3

Compensation for supplies lost due to Brexit

The threat of huge lorries and containers jamming our ports appears to be a serious and real problem.

Whether delayed drug or isotope deliveries, or food and fuel, the government could reassure us all, and especially the businesses threatened by the losses, if it simply promised to pay the cost of the loss or reasonable alternative. I’m sure the hardcore Brexiteers would also be willing to cover such costs for the sake of their principles. A simple registration scheme, like organ donation, with HMRC, could see the necessary deductions made on an annual basis. This could also cover the difference in cost between promised outcomes and actual.

When the benefits start to swing the other way the contributions could then be refunded by the same route.

Michael Mann
Shrewsbury

Bluetooth speakers

One of the banes of my life – among a list that include dog mess, verbal abuse of children by parents on the school run that needs intervention by professionals and constant use of the F-word – is the use of bluetooth car speakers at full volume.

My neighbour will park at six in the morning on a Sunday with that godawful boom, boom, boom music blasting out with no consideration for others or good manners (a common feature of a lot of Yorkshire “folk” and rationalised as being “blunt”).

I would, therefore, like to thank Vauxhall cars for their new advert that approves of/legitimises/rewards people who carry out this frankly appalling anti-social behaviour. Good move, well done.

R Kimble
Leeds