Letters: Obama’s advice to shun Brexit could backfire

The following letters appear in the 18th March edition of the Independent

The letter's signatories say Mr Obama's move risks being ‘undemocratic’ (Getty Images)

Barack Obama, his Secretary of State John Kerry and now the head of the US Army in Europe, Lt Gen Ben Hodges, have thrown their weight behind Britain staying in the EU. They could have a decisive influence upon our referendum, but probably not by simply telling us what to do.

It is open to them to have a much greater effect by opening the doors of the USA to the underpaid or unemployed workers of Eastern and Southern Europe and Turkey and those fleeing the war zones of the Middle East and South Asia. For the floating populations from these regions to have a preferred destination would help lift the threat of the UK population rising to and beyond 70 million, and make much sense given that our population density is already around eight times that of the USA. If they can’t help us in this way they shouldn’t be surprised if we act to save ourselves.

Americans should perhaps be careful what they wish for. They may value us as a strong voice loyal to them within a rival organisation. But that is exactly what Henry II though he was getting when he made Thomas Becket Archbishop of Canterbury. If we pass up this last chance to escape the homogenisation of Europe then America may find that like Becket we take on a different identity and different loyalties.

John Riseley

Harrogate

Barack Obama should think again before urging Britain to remain in the EU. Imagine the outcry from Washington were David Cameron to press Mexico’s case for unimpeded entry of its nationals into the US.

The North American Free Trade Area neither makes provision for the free movement of labour, nor would any American or Canadian politician dare advocate it. In contrast, the free movement of labour is a bedrock principle of the EU.

Washington has also consistently pressed the European Union to admit Turkey. The mind boggles that such a Greater EU would border Syria, Iraq and Iran. Then there is the migrant crisis. The EU appears incapable of controlling its external borders.

America’s national interests do not necessarily coincide with those of Britain.

Yugo Kovach

Winterborne Houghton, Dorset

Budget will anger fair-minded people

Rather than rob the rich and give to the poor, George Osborne has done the precise opposite. By making further cuts in services and benefits he has taken from the poor and disabled to benefit the well-off.

As a clergyman and the father of two children with special needs, I guess I feel this particularly strongly. However, I am sure fair-minded people the length and the breadth of the country will be similarly angered.

While Britain clearly needs to cut its coat to suit its cloth this should be done in a fair and just manner. The broadest backs should bear the heaviest burdens.

The Rev Andrew McLuskey

Staines, Middlesex

George Osborne is to bring in a soft drinks tax in two years’ time in an attempt to reduce obesity. Why not now? We shall be fatter by then.

Eddie Peart

Rotherham, South Yorkshire

Trump gets away with inciting violence

I have seen excerpts from half a dozen televised speeches by Donald Trump in which he has unambiguously incited supporters in his audience to commit acts of violence against protesters among them, with the assurance that he would pay their legal fees.

I cannot believe that such incitement to commit a crime would go unpunished in this country or our European neighbours. Is such incitement to violence condoned by the American legal system? If not, how is he able to avoid arrest? I would not expect even a president to be exempt.

Sidney Alford

Corsham, Wiltshire

No loss of appetite to prosecute fraud

To describe, in hindsight, any criminal investigation which doesn’t result in charges as a “blow” or a “setback” (“Fresh blow for SFO as it drops forex-rigging investigation”, 16 March) is to suggest that investigators should be clairvoyant.

The SFO investigates the top tier of fraud cases. It does so only where the Director is satisfied that there are reasonable grounds to suspect serious or complex fraud. This test, which governs the decision whether to start an investigation, is different to that on whether to prosecute anyone for an offence.

We, like all public prosecutors, can prosecute only where we are satisfied that there is sufficient evidence to support a realistic prospect of a conviction and that a prosecution would be in the public interest. In relation to the Forex matter, we carried out a comprehensive investigation and concluded that the evidence available to us did not, and even with further investigation would not, meet the required standard to bring criminal charges.

Ben Rose’s speculation that the Forex decision marks a loss of appetite by the SFO is incorrect. These kinds of cases are precisely those the SFO was established to investigate, and we will not hesitate to continue with them where the evidence justifies it.

David Green

Director, Serious Fraud Office, London SW1

Not enough doctors on the wards

If you attend a sports event, there are official guidelines on minimum staffing of stewards. If you attend a school, nursery or childminder, there are minimum staffing ratios. If you board a plane, there is a minimum staffing ratio for flight attendants to passengers. Horrifyingly, if you enter an NHS hospital, there are no minimum staffing guidelines for the doctors caring for you.

Avoidable hospital deaths rarely make the headlines. Often these pass by, unknown by family members, perhaps not fully realised by doctors. In a recent survey of 950 junior doctors, 94 per cent stated they had worked on a ward where junior doctor staffing posed a risk to patient safety. Thirty-eight per cent had cared for a patient who had died because of understaffing or the inexperience of the doctor left responsible for the patient.

We fear that unless NHS England steps in to ensure that hospital trusts are compelled to identify minimum staffing for junior doctors, many thousands more will die needlessly.

The NHS is sick, can somebody call a doctor?

Dr Katie Musgrave

Junior doctor and GP trainee, Loddiswell, Devon

End this ‘cruelty’ and horses will die

Jennifer White (letter, 17 March) says that 400 horses die racing in the UK every year and suggests that racing should be put out to pasture. Well, do that and several thousand people will be out of a job and our economy would suffer a horrendous downturn. But this is not the point.

If horses were not allowed to race there would be no need for them and several thousand would die. If I were a horse and had a choice of being pampered all year, but risking injuring myself by racing six times a year, or being shot, I think it would be worthwhile taking a risk.

Malcolm Howard

Banstead, Surrey

Duke of Anjou went unrecognised

Throughout The Independent’s glorious history (and my assiduous readership from the very first day of publication) you have fought shy of royalty stories. You have left it to other media to do the gushing and the gossip. However, your coverage of the Ivory Coast terrorist attack (15 March) has taken this reticence too far.

In reporting that “French national Charles-Philippe d’Orleans” later referred to as “Mr d’Orleans”, managed to escape the gunmen, you missed an opportunity. Mr d’Orleans is none other than former UN Commissioner for Refugees (Royal) Prince Charles-Philippe, Duke of Anjou.

Apart from a distinguished French military career, in Kosovo among others, he is the moving spirit behind the Saint Lazare Foundation, committed to the rationalisation of water usage worldwide. “Mr d’Orleans” indeed!

Caroline Doggart

London SW3

Careers advice? Forget it

Cole Davis (letter, 17 March) bemoans the lack of good careers advice in schools. It has never been anything but the Cinderella at a school’s dance.

My own careers advice in the 1960s went thus: “You, boy? Cambridge? Good God, boy! You’ll never get into Cambridge!”

Robert Walker MA (Cantab)

Cottesbrooke,

Northamptonshire

Overheard in the greasy spoon

Geoff Baguley (letter, 16 March) might or might not have appreciated this conversation, overheard recently in an Oxford café:

“Well, George, how have you enjoyed your time here reading English?”

“Well, it’s been like sort of y’know like hard work.”

Don Newton

Oxford