Section:GDN 1J PaGe:6 Edition Date:190829 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 28/8/2019 17:23 cYanmaGentaYellowbla
- The Guardian Thursday 29 Aug ust 2019
6 Letters
I have watched the Brexit
stalemate evolve from a national
embarrassment into a national
crisis. However, I always had faith
that respect for our great democracy
and its people would prove the
rumours surrounding the wilful
suppression of parliament and its
democratic mandate unfounded.
With the prime minister’s
announcement of his intention
to prorogue parliament ( Report ,
28 August), I am left profoundly
disturbed. There appears to be
no insidious tactic beneath this
far-right fringe Conservative
government. For what does it
mean to live in a democracy
where the democratically elected
representatives of the people can be
ignored for the advancement of the
prime minister’s own agenda?
This is no longer a matter of
remain v leave, or soft Brexit v hardMany are responsible
for Brazil’s Amazon fi res
As democracy dies, Cromwell’s
speech echoes down the years
Women’s organisations welcomed
the chancellor’s promise this year
that “austerity is coming to an
end”. The 2019 spending review is a
signifi cant test of what that promise
will mean in real terms, particularly
for women, who have borne the
brunt of austerity policies since 2010.
But an end to austerity must mean
more than simply an end to budget
cuts. After nearly a decade of chronic
underfunding, our public services are
in crisis. For “just about managing”
families, continuing as they are for
the next few years certainly won’t feel
much like the end of austerity.
Women – particularly the poorest
women, BAME women and disabled
women – suff ered most from cuts to
public services and social security
because they are generally poorer,
more likely to use public services,
more likely to work in the public
sector and more likely to increase
unpaid work when services areWomen and the
spending review
A drop in
the ocean
A monk looks
out towards the
horizon as the
waves hit the
coastline in Puri,
eastern India
ABHIRUP DASGUPTA/
GUARDIAN COMMUNITY
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these pagesColombia, Guatemala and Honduras
regardless of appalling human rights
violations, displacement of peoples
and environmental degradation,
and all in the name of sustainable
development. Given the scale of
the disaster in Brazil, perhaps the
neoliberal EU will fi nally heed the old
North American warning that only
after every tree has been cut down
and every river poisoned will people
realise that you cannot eat money.
Bert Schouwenburg
(Trade union adviser), London- We can blame Jair Bolsonaro as
much as we like, but he is a capitalist,
like us in the west. Until the rich
west stops eating animals, Brazil will
go on tearing down their forests to
grow grain to feed our intensively
farmed animals; and until the rich
stop importing Brazilian beef, the
trees will be cut down or burned to
rear cattle. It is like a tap running
and overfl owing on the fl oor. It does
not help by mopping the fl oor if you
don’t turn off the tap. Go vegan: that
is the answer to turning off the tap.
Sara Starkey
Tonbridge, Kent - Your headline ( In the burning
Amazon, all our futures are now at
stake , 23 August) very neatly sums
up our present, constantly predicted
situation, one which for decades
has been ignored just as predictably.
I am at present fi nishing the draft
of a post-apocalyptic novel where,
500 years in the future, a small,
scientifi c and scholarly community
in a devastated world tries to
It would be undemocratic to give
the people a chance to confi rm their
decision now that they have had
time to assess the true facts and
implications. It’s democratic for
our undemocratically elected PM
to try to prevent the democratically
elected representatives of the people
from challenging decisions made by
a minority of the government.
Is my understanding
of democracy wrong or is
undemocratic the new democratic?
Margaret Sargent
Newton Abbott, Devon- It is timely to remind our MPs of
Cromwell’s speech to parliament,
19 April 1653: “Ye sordid prostitutes,
have you not defi l’d this sacred place
and turned the Lord’s temple into
a den of thieves, by your immoral
purposes and wicked practices? Ye
are grown intolerably odious to the
whole nation; you were deputed
here by the people to get grievances
redress’d, are yourselves become
the greatest grievance.”
Graeme Innes-Johnstone
Elland, West Yorkshire
The fi res laying waste to the
Amazon rainforest ( Report , 28
August) make a mockery of the
European commission’s claim
that a blockbuster free-trade
agreement with the Mercosur
(South American common market)
countries will enhance what
they euphemistically refer to as
“sustainable development”. On the
contrary, the agreement will merely
lock in the South American republics’
historic dependency on the export
of agricultural commodities such as
genetically modifi ed soya, beef and
sugar, much of which comes from
savannah and forest land that has
been destroyed by huge agri-business
combines. Local resistance to the
destruction of their lands has been
met with repression and violence,
particularly in Paraguay, Brazil
and Argentina, where rightwing
governments treat their indigenous
populations with contempt.
Despite sustained opposition
from trade unions on both sides
of the Atlantic, the EU continues
to sign free-trade deals with
Latin American states such asBrexit, or people v parliament. Any
democratic representative being
silenced is an outrage; an entire
parliament being tactically prorogued
is an unacceptable challenge to
the fundamental philosophy of
democracy. These actions are those of
a dictator ruling an autocracy.
Wherever MPs are on the Brexit
spectrum, I implore them to stand
against this gross misuse of power.
For the fi rst time in my life I fear for
the future of this country should
such a precedent be set.
Ben Filipinski
Hinckley, Leicestershire- Could somebody please defi ne
democracy for me? I’m obviously
misguided in my understanding.
Currently, it’s democratic to follow
the will of the minority of the
people, that will being based on
falsehoods and lack of information.
investigate the few extant historical
records to fi nd out how the ultimate
catastrophe was allowed to happen.
S uch investigators will be appalled,
not only by the malign stupidity of
politicians like Trump, Bolsonaro,
Morrison and their solipsistic elites
but also by the inaction of the
majorities, which were supposed
to be intelligent and sane. The time
for gentle persuasion is over. The
UN must move immediately to put
Brazil under the strictest economic
sanctions (the only exceptions
being fi refi ghting technology and
support). It should be made clear
these sanctions will last until the
fi res are out or Bolsonaro and his
cretinous crew are kicked out. Please,
no pious platitudes about overriding
democracy. A ll our futures are now
at stake – so everyone on the planet
has a vote on its survival.
Steve Edwards
Haywards Heath, West Sussex- The answer is simple. Let Unesco
immediately declare the Amazon
rainforest a World Heritage Site. This
will protect the whole area under
the 1972 convention. Brazil, and
the seven other countries involved,
may receive attractive fi nancial
compensation for their custodianship
of a vital international asset.
Michael Stone
Moretonhampstead, Devon - Heartening though it may be that
international leaders are taking the
deliberate destruction of the Amazon
rainforest seriously, can we expect
proposed trade bans on Canada (Tar
sands – the most destructive project
on earth?), Australia (third largest
exporter of CO 2 in fossil fuels), and
the US, whose president gives oxygen
to these government actions by
withdrawing from the Paris accord?
Stephen Andrews
Charlbury, Oxfordshire
cut. Women and those on lower
incomes need to see a marked
improvement in public services
and a rise in living standards more
generally, if the promise of end to
austerity is going to ring true. Our
public services and social security
system need meaningful investment
to actively reverse and repair the
damage done since 2010. Spending
on social infrastructure, such as
health, education, care and specialist
women’s services builds the social and
human capital that is just as important
to future productivity as investment
in say, transportation networks. After
all, it is not just roads but high-quality
childcare and reliable healthcare that
enable parents to work.
We call on the new PM to use the
spending review to demonstrate he is
serious about ending austerity and set
out a positive vision for the country.
Mary-Ann Stephenson UK Women’s
Budget Group, Alison Garnham
Child Poverty Action Group, Sue
Bott Disability Rights UK, Andrea
Simon The End Violence Against
Women Coalition and 30 others.
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letters-termsDespite opposition
from trade unions, the
EU continues to sign
free-trade deals with
Latin American statesBert SchouwenburgRELEASED BY "What's News" vk.com/wsnws TELEGRAM: t.me/whatsnws