Dear Editor,
Please find space for my letter to Confluence readers who I know are a worthy group of people who enjoy reading Confluence and some of whom write wonderfully well for it. So why the silence? An extraordinary event has taken place which may affect our lives adversely and Mr A. Thyagaraja felt strongly enough to take up his pen and write to the Editor expressing deep apprehension and reservations about Brexit. It was hoped that his letter would arouse at least a few of you either to support his ideas or challenge them. This would have been a wonderful opportunity for us to thrash it out in the Letters column.
He argued that the result was illegal because the Brexit side had actually lied in some of their claims. I can support that. They told people that a million Turks would descend on the country imminently and that we could continue to trade with the single Market bloc without having to accede to any EU rules. They somehow forgot to say that trading with them required acceptance of freedom of movement. They talked of a rosy new dawn when somehow with all our shackles removed we would enjoy a blissfully free and prosperous life. They chose to ignore or even rubbish the views of many eminent persons who had considerable expertise in the financial world. They had said Brexit would have an impoverishing effect on the country. In truth the main factor in the argument was really about migration or immigration. Farage’s outrageous poster showed him and his party up for what they really are. RACISTS. I am sure that poster had a huge negative effect on undecided voters. No more people of colour was the message.
I am heartened by the letters in The Times from lawyers saying as Mr. Thyagaraja does that a referendum is not constitutionally binding. Parliament is the law making body. It needs to pronounce that the result was merely advisory and the final decision should remain the prerogative of Parliament. Matters were not helped by the immediate resignation of the PM which flustered a lot of people and has set in motion an election within the Tory party.
History will point the finger of blame for this unnecessary exercise at David Cameron who made the gravest error of his career in calling a Referendum.
Yours sincerely,
6th July, 2016 M. Sitaram
PS Readers, please do take this chance to write even very briefly.