Express & Star

Country's mess is down to Blair and Brown

I had been disappointed with the criticism of Jeremy Lefroy in a recent edition of Express & Star, but all was put right with the three excellent letters in support of him which you printed the following week.

Published
Gordon Brown and Tony Blair

I am more disappointed, however, with the ‘open’ or ‘leaked’ letters from the Conservative Party, signed by supposed supporters, which keep appearing in the national press.

As Jeremy wrote in his reply to E&S, there was no need for the letter in question for there was nothing in it which Theresa May did not already have in hand, certainly no need for Jeremy Lefroy to add another signature.

Such letters only serve to send the wrong message to the EU that matters were out of control, whereas, in fact, the opposite was the case, as should now be clear to everyone.

When Theresa May made her announcement to the House of Commons there were, rightly, cheers all round. However, I waited for the ever-sneering Jeremy Corbyn to add his piece.

No wonder Labour’s plan is, or was, to allow Corbyn to win (!) the next General Election – and then dump him.

And then, I wondered again, why doesn’t the Government put the blame for the mess where it truly lies?

And that is with the Blair/Brown 1997-2010 Labour government.

It’s all very well criticising the Tories for seeming to take a long time to negotiate our way out of the EU, but that’s what can happen when have to ‘make the best of a bad job’, to coin the phrase, Blair and Brown having apparently accepted - on our behalf! Every clause and condition thrown at them.

Therefore, the Brexit process was bound to take longer as a result.

What else can be lain at the door of the last Labour government? ‘Open borders’ for one thing. The EU has always been obsessed with this idea.

The problem is it makes flitting from one country to another as simple as a game of hop-scotch.

How many illegal immigrants have been let into our country because of this policy?

How many ‘incidents’ have happened as a result?

What about the cost? Housing (no wonder we have a housing shortage)? Benefits (for few, surely, would have had jobs waiting for them)? Cost to NHS?

Many other things – including ‘translations of documents etc’. For I read somewhere that many of the immigrants speak languages previously unknown in this country.

Rules of EU dictate that translations must be made available.

I’ve hardly scratched the surface, but we mustn’t forget Tony Blair and his wild goose chase to find the WMD. The cost? And do we all feel safer as a result of his efforts?

John Wilson

Stafford