Not all Leave voters are racist – but Brexit undoubtedly is

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

I felt a mixture of upset and a sort of righteous anger listening to my colleagues this morning express their concerns over Brexit. These are hardworking, taxpaying individuals who provide services required by many thousands of British citizens – both students and other library users.

And yet, by virtue of their German, French, Polish and Greek origins, the lives that they have spent years building in this country have become subject to seemingly endless stress and worry. One bemoaned the fact that she constantly visits the Home Office website to search for information on applying for settled status – however, the site keeps crashing as so many other users crowd its servers, frantically searching for a sense of security amid this political shambles.

Diligent colleagues described the tears they had shed and the fears they had felt in the weeks following the June 2016 vote. One pointed out that the government may have done well to develop some sort of vaguely coherent plan before triggering Article 50, in order to avoid the state of confusion we now find ourselves in in 2019.

This is the reality of Brexit. It may be argued that not all Leave voters had racist motivations, and this may be true. However, the adverse effects that leaving the European Union could have on the many thousands of continental employees who lead productive, fruitful lives here cannot be ignored. Does it not seem unfair that some of the most assiduous in society be among the worst hit? The intentions behind the Brexit vote may not necessarily have been “racist”, but there is little doubt that its consequences are.

Nora Baker
Botley, Hampshire

Watch out for May’s trap

Theresa May kept her cabinet locked up until they agreed to her latest cunning plan (to have Jeremy Corbyn help her over the Brexit line) and then away from their phones until her people came up with a way of selling this latest insanity to the nation.

But does she really think Jeremy Corbyn is stupid enough to walk hand in hand with her to a Tory Brexit? The honourable member for Islington North isn’t the sharpest knife in the canteen but even he will see this is another exercise in the blame game.

Rev Dr John Cameron
St Andrews

Jeremy Corbyn should beware in helping Theresa May deliver Brexit. The Tories, as proved during the coalition years with the Lib Dems, will claim any success as their own and attribute failure or anything unpopular to the people they’ve asked to work with them.

Labour can also expect the Tories to use the right-wing press to undermine them as, for example, David Cameron did in May 2012 when the Daily Mail’s front page ran his quote: “I’d govern like a true Tory if it wasn’t for the Lib Dems”. Given how they’ve governed since, it shows just how well the Lib Dems did to keep them in check.

Hopefully, Labour can exercise a similar steadying influence – not least in ensuring we have a Final Say.

Roger Hinds
Surrey

Conflating anti-Zionism with antisemitism is a fool’s game

​Holly Rigby deserves congratulation for urging resilience in the face of attempts to close down support for Palestinians by means of the antisemitism label increasingly attached to criticism of the Israel state and its racist policies.

She rightly notes the irresistible parallels between the anti-apartheid campaign which eventually brought an end to the entrenched racism of the white South African regime, and the growing movement which seeks to hold Israel to account for its dispossession of the Palestinian people and its routine discrimination and violence against them.

Many Jews play a leading role in that movement and agree unreservedly with Rigby when she points out that dealing with real, abhorrent cases of antisemitism is not served by conflating antisemitism with anti-Zionism and using this conflation to shut down legitimate criticisms of the Israeli state.

Leah Levane and Jenny Manson
Co-chairs, Jewish Voice for Labour

Is antisemitism in Labour a new problem?

Alan Johnson raises, yet again, the subject of antisemitism in the Labour Party. Unless I have been going around with my head in a sack I cannot recall the subject of antisemitism being raised as a problem in the party until Jeremy Corbyn became leader, much to the chagrin of the Blairite elements in the party. If antisemitism is the problem that is claimed, there are two possibilities to explain it.

One is that antisemitism was always present in the party but no one bothered to mention it until Corbyn became leader. The second is that it was not a problem until Corbyn was elected and that for some reason thousands of antisemites joined the party at that time. Accusations against Corbyn of being soft on antisemitism verged on the ludicrous when at last year’s Passover, for example, he spent the festival with the “wrong” sort of Jews – left-wing Jews!

I have not met Jeremy Corbyn and can only take on trust that he has no prejudice against any group, either racial, religious or sexual orientation but I have seen no evidence to the contrary. There is ample evidence, however, that there are certain members of the Labour Party who are bent on getting rid of Corbyn and will use any smears they can think up to discredit him, with antisemitism being a very potent weapon.

Patrick Cleary
Honiton, East Devon

Beware the Corbyn smears

Am I the only reader smelling a rat with “M Kelly” of Oxford’s letter, “Communism is coming”?

As a democratic socialist and long-time Labour supporter, I’ve never read such clap-trap in all my life. It’s fanciful in the extreme that someone claiming to be a “lifelong Labour supporter” should hold these absurd views about Jeremy Corbyn – unless, that is, “M Kelly” is one of those exceedingly rare beasts: a Daily Mail-reading Labour voter who believes everything he reads in that publication.

With a general election possibly afoot, we must all be alert to the orchestrated dirty tricks and the ferocity of the propaganda assault that will inevitably be launched against Jeremy Corbyn and Labour by the terrified establishment.

Alas for them, however, most of us with even a few brain cells will be able to see straight through it.

Dr Richard House
Stroud, Gloucestershire​