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MPs need courage

SO Boris Johnson is not content with his major part in the leave campaign of 2016, with all the false promises/lies which convinced just enough people to vote leave.

Having used that exercise to fulfil his lifetime ambition of getting into No.10, he is now using even more extreme tactics by threatening to suspend Parliament.

This game of chicken may get a few concessions from the EU but will never convince Mr Farage & his extreme right wing.

Their only aim is to “ get out” completely with no concern for the effect on ordinary people & to satisfy their own ideology & ego.

Furthermore the inevitable outcome if Boris Johnson gets his way is our drifting even further towards being the next USA state. Bad enough normally but under the dangerous/ unreliable Trump.????

Next step for Boris will be further unfunded promises of huge sums of money for the Police/Schools/NHS, all ready for the inevitable General Election.

Does Boris really think that many people believe his motives are anything other than his desire to go down in history as Mr Brexit??

It seems that the only hope now to avoid a no-deal is for enough MPs with a conscience & the courage to be be able to stop this madness.

Clearly a good number of Tory MPs are in this category but, sadly, too many will continue to put their party & personnel careers before the best interests of the Country.

Gary Hunt, Chippenham

Is no deal worth it?

I DON’T know when the last political demonstration in Chippenham town centre was – possibly not even during the protests against the poll tax in the 1980s. But there was a “stop the coup” protest there on Saturday.

That shows how angry local people are about the Prime Minister’s decision to prorogue Parliament when there are only two months to go before the date when the UK is currently scheduled to leave the EU.

While I hear the arguments about the need to start a new parliamentary session and allowing a new legislative programme to start, such a prorogation could easily have coincided with the recess already planned.

It is transparent, as the new Secretary of State for Defence admitted on camera at the end of August, that this prorogation is simply to avoid scrutiny and debate.

Is pursuing a no deal Brexit really worth sacrificing our democracy and conventions for? How is this “taking back control”?

Helen Belcher, Lib Dem Prospective MP for Chippenham, Pound Mead, Corsham

Saving democracy?

LOOKING at what MPs Michelle Donelan, Clare Perry and James Gray have posted on social media, I see that all three of them back the Prime Minister’s extended suspension of Parliament, with the aim of preventing Parliament passing legislation to stop a ‘No Deal’ Brexit.

But the Government has no mandate for a ‘No Deal’ Brexit and there is no majority for this in the House of Commons; nor in any surveys of public opinion.

Boris Johnson’s decision to prorogue Parliament at this time of constitutional crisis is clearly anti-democratic.

During the EU Referendum the Leave campaign told voters they wanted to make the British Parliament sovereign again.

Yet our local MPs happily accept that the Prime Minister seizing this sovereignty. (I suspect they would have protested very strongly had a Labour PM acted in this way).

On Saturday, as I passed the Conservative office in Chippenham, I saw in its doorway a discarded placard saying ‘Save Our Democracy’.

Sadly I don’t think we can now rely on Messrs Donelan, Gray or Perry championing this noble cause.

John Boaler, Woodland Park, Calne

Not Queen’s fault

I WAS listening to the BBC Radio 4 ‘BH’ programme this Sunday morning. In it Lord Peter Hennessey said of Boris Johnson’s treatment of the Queen over the proroguing of Parliament: “To think that anybody, in the twilight years of her reign, would even conceive in their remotest low moment to put the Queen in that position is appalling”.

He then went on to say, “He has done something deeply unwise”.

Rightly our Queen sits above party politics. Her impartiality safeguards our nation. Lord Hennessy is correct.

Johnson knew Her Majesty had no choice other than to agree to his hijacking of Parliament. For him to use the Queen in this way shows how low he can go.

Now it is up to MPs to save us from the disaster of a “No Deal Brexit”. The Government’s own leaked documents show that our food, medicines, clean water and jobs will all be put at risk as a result.

With the vote on a knife edge, the key is will enough Conservative MPs put country before party and their careers to break ranks and rebel?

We will soon know.

Dr Brian Mathew, Liberal Democrat Prospective MP for North Wiltshire, Wiltshire Councillor for Box & Colerne

Well done Joe

THANK goodness for sensible and articulate young people who have the sense to dismiss the wild climate rants of persistent climate denier Rowland Pantling of Pewsey.

It was a joy to read Joe Brindle’s letter entitled “We must act now.”

Perhaps you could as editor chair a discussion between the old climate change deniers that clog your pages and young people represented by Joe and the Schools Working Group UK Student Climate Network.

Roger Day, Wedhampton, Devizes

Thank you shoppers

I WOULD like to thank the people of Chippenham for raising £73.22 during my street collection on Saturday 31 August in aid of Brooke (Action for Working Horses and Donkeys) a charity helping to improve the quality of life of working animals in some of the world’s poorest communities.

Roger G Challoner Green, Church Lane, Wingfield, Trowbridge

Good Samaritans

I WOULD like to take this opportunity to thank all those persons who came to help me when I fell in Maryport Street, Devizes, on Monday August 1, especially the gentleman who tried to break my fall, ending up taking a tumble himself.

Thank you to everyone, glad to day no broken bones just a few bruises.

Barbara Munroe, Bromham