Elgar would be pro-Brexit

SIR – I was interested to see a photo of Harriett Baldwin in the Worcester News dressed in a blue “I’m IN” T-shirt standing next to the bust of Sir Edward Elgar regaled in a white “I’m IN” T-shirt. Mrs Baldwin “cheekily” appeared to believe that Sir Edward would have supported the “IN” campaign.

A number of readers disagreed, finding this tactic “disgraceful” and a jingoistic use of his music.

In fact many of today’s musicians support Brexit, e.g. I believe Mick Jagger does to name but one.

I can recommend a better class of T-shirt obtainable at a reasonable price from the Leave E.EU.

Having composed Land of Hope and Glory and Pomp and Circumstance, I doubt very much that Sir Edward would have been at all interested in wearing this particular t-shirt. I shall be wearing my white Leave E.EU with patriotic pride and humming Land of Hope and Glory as loudly as possible for the next fortnight.

Wendy Hands

Upton-Upon-Severn

EU needs to be together

SIR – With opinion polls indicating a referendum knife-edge, just a few final thoughts. What really endangers us (terrorism, climate change, floods, storms, food shortages, war and forced migration) requires global partnership rather than fragmentation, and working positively within the EU is sensible way to bring that about. There is more than irony in adopting a position wherein, in the name of putting our country first, we are in danger of breaking it into pieces.

A glaring contradiction lies at the heart of the Brexit proposition: Britain is, apparently, so great and so different that she can afford to be adrift of her continental hinterland, yet is, at the same time, so feeble, so imperilled and incapable of winning any argument with these pesky continentals that she must, of necessity, lose her identity in the event of a final commitment being made to belong among them.

It makes no sense, but one of Brexit’s biggest cheerleaders, an Australian-born USA passport-holder who owns the largest-circulation UK tabloid newspaper (the one with BeLEAVE on its front page) pointed out that his anti-EU position is, on the contrary, “easy” to understand: “When I go into Downing Street, they do what I say; when I go to Brussels, they take no notice”. Got that?

Can a Brexited UK really be a country where most of us would wish to live?

David Barlow

Worcester

EU is symbol for peace

SIR – The whole idea of leaving the EU in 2016 is a repetition of the worst of history. Uprooting the UK from over 40 years of the growth of co-operation and integration is bonkers. The referendum has come about because a growing right wing euro-sceptic section of the Conservative Party and a one-time fringe party (Ukip) have managed to persuade some people that all of the problems of the 21st century which we share with EU countries and the wider world can only be resolved by us leaving the EU. Ridiculous! The Conservative Party launched the referendum as a means to solve its internal problems in order to avoid the party splitting.

Peace is not only the absence of war, it is the absence of the conditions that can lead to war. Our history has been dominated by wars for the last 2,000 years. Attempts have been made in the past to unite Europe by force. The EU represents the first successful unity movement by peaceful means driven by trade and a social justice by consent.

Cheering demagogues like Nigel Farage using patriotism (the last refuge of the scoundrel) and hate of foreigners has always ended in tears, not to mention total death and destruction across Europe, most recently in the Balkans. Leaving the EU can lead other countries to do the same, driven by right-wing ultra nationalists.

Dump Farage and his like in the dustbin of history and vote REMAIN in order to grow the peace of Europe, not destroy it.

Peter Nielsen

Worcester

How much is lost in ‘error’?

SIR – I agree with David Barlow that the EU accounts are clean, notwithstanding the fact that the auditors state that EU payments are “materially affected by error”. I didn’t understand this contradiction so I read the auditors report (2014 EU audit report) and indeed rang and spoke with the European Court of Auditors (ECA).

My understanding is that the EU accounts are clean because the EU can show who they got money from and indeed who they sent it to. The issue is with the recipients of the money and what they either claimed for or actually did with the money. The EU budget in 2014 was about £110 billion and auditors found errors of 4.4 per cent. This equates to about £5 billion of EU payments being wrong in some respect each year. Yes the auditors will pass details to EU fraud-busters of the errors they have found but auditors only check a small sample.

The report outlines various examples of error that the auditors found. The most disturbing point though is in the ECA president’s introduction on page two when he says: “For many years now, we have identified persistently high levels of error in spending”. I wonder how much is lost, £5 billion a year is a lot, but £5 billion for many years?

Neil Monkhouse

Worcester

Questions still need answers

SIR – Please can someone give me an honest answer to my questions: 1. If we leave the EU, will we have to pay them less money?

2. Will we be able to refuse to take any more immigrants?

3. Will there then be places at local schools for our children in the school of their choice?

4. Will we still have to pay immigrants benefits including family allowance to send home to their children if they really have any and money to keep them until they get a job?

5. If we do take more immigrants, will they take second place in our society so that British people can get houses etc, instead of them. Also jobs for Brits?

6. What is the proportion of money given to EU and what is being given back in grants?

7. Will we have more money to give to the NHS?

8. Will we be able to do away with food banks and poverty in Britain?

Honest answers would be appreciated.

MRS E YOUNG

Worcester