Section:GDN 1J PaGe:6 Edition Date:190827 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 26/8/2019 16:51 cYanmaGentaYellowbla
- The Guardian Tuesday 27 Aug ust 2019
6 Letters
Your report ( Tory divisions over
Brexit deepen amid row over
no-deal dossier leak , 19 August)
cites an offi cial prediction of
“severe extended delays to
medicine supplies” after a no-deal
Brexit. That would leave millions
at increased risk of painful
outcomes, and perhaps thousands
at increased risk of death. What,
specifi cally for each medicine,
should patients, GPs and hospitals
do about this?
The government says it tendered
a £25m contract on 15 August
to transport “time-sensitive
shipments” from the EU and
“ensure [that] supply of medicalBrexit and the will of the
Northern Irish people
We need to be told exactly which
medicines will be in short supply
I hope the government notes for its
immigration policy that England
beat the Aussies at cricket due to
Ben Stokes, born in New Zealand,
and Jof ra Archer, born in Barbados,
(S tokes heroics hit new level to turn
series on its head , Sport, 26 August).
Don Macdonald
London- Since both are noted cricket fans,
it was no surprise that both Boris
Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn tweeted
about England’s uplifting victory
in the third Ashes test at Leeds on
Sunday. No surprise either that
Corbyn was the one who noted,
given the interest and heroics on
display, that it might be an idea if
Test cricket were on free-to-air TV.
Keith Flett
London - If we can beat Australia despite
the experts writing us off , surviving
O my Stokes and my
Archer in the Test
Edge of
the world
‘A postcard from
Donegal: this
photo was taken
last week in the
west coast of
Ireland while on
a short road trip
en route to Slieve
League cliff s’
RICKY ADAM/
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the best ones- Simon Jenkins thinks the Good
Friday agreement is compatible with a
sea border between Northern Ireland
and the United Kingdom. Despite his
support for the agreement, he appears
to know nothing of the principle
of consent, or the cogent and well-
informed argument of Lords Trimble
and Bew that it is the backstop which
threatens the agreement.
Jenkins thinks Northern Ireland
could remain in the United Kingdom
with a sea border, but reveals his
real purpose in his last paragraph.
He wants the Brexit crisis to steer
all of Ireland “towards a stable
and contented union”. But one
lesson of Brexit is that the process
of leaving a union of fewer than
50 years has been extraordinarily
diffi cult; leaving a union that is
200 years old – and which involves
a far greater degree of economic
and administrative connection
– would be infi nitely harder.
Colin Armstrong
Belfast - Simon Jenkins is doing his Theresa
May impression : “A border is a
border, wherever located” sounds a
bit like “Brexit means Brexit ”. Does
he really think that the Norwegian-
Russian border is no diff erent from
the Norwegian-Swedish one?
Sabine Wey and, pouring cold
water on attempts to fi nd a solution,
may be “the EU tariff expert”, but
she knows far less about borders
than Tony Smith, a former director
general of the UK Border Force, who
has been repeatedly frustrated in his
attempts to get the EU to consider
sensible proposals. He has said that
“any agreement around border
transformation is entirely achievable
with the collaborative will of the
countries on either side of it”. The
problem is that the EU doesn’t
of the people is the highest law.
Is Johnson’s motto “Salus populi
minima lex”?
Michael Lipton
Emeritus professor of economics,
University of Sussex, Brighton- As a cancer patient with chronic
lymphocytic leukaemia on
second-line treatment, I asked my
consultant haematologist whether
the Imbruvica capsules I am taking,
which are manufactured in Belgium,
would still be available after a
no-deal Brexit. She had no answer.
How many other cancer patients
are in this situation, whereby their
life-saving treatments may stop
mid-course? Are there thousands or
millions? And would the palliative-
care facilities be suffi cient to cope
with a boom of cancer patients?
Angela Boyd
Wellington, Somerset
Simon Jenkins is right ( Only a border
in the Irish Sea could resolve this
Brexit mess , Journal, 23 August).
To sell this to the people, Boris
Johnson would need to present it as
a victory. The compromise would be
for the EU to postpone the backstop
to the end of the two-year transition
period – Johnson could sell this as
the m removing the backstop from
the withdrawal agreement (even
though it would not have come into
eff ect till then anyway). That gives
the Brexit ers about 18 months to
come up with workable alternative
arrangements. In return, the UK
would agree to hold a referendum in
Northern Ireland to choose between
the alternative arrangements and
the backstop (ie staying in the single
market and customs union).
If the people voted for the
backstop, no one could say this was
anti-democratic. If they chose the
alternative arrangements, we ’d be no
worse off than today, but we would
have had two years to transition
from the EU, and other agreements
in Theresa May’s deal would stand.
If this was put to parliament before
31 October , even if the DUP voted
against it, enough MPs would
support it as an alternative to a
feared no deal. Winners all round!
Susanne MacGregor
Londongoods remains uninterrupted”
after Brexit. However, “one in three
generics manufacturers” are making
their own arrangements due to
“uncertainty around government
plans”, according to a recent report
in the Pharmaceutical Journal. And
what about non-generics, including
all medicines still under patent?
Matt Hancock, the health
secretary, should now publish a list
of exactly which medicines are at
risk and of how much delay. For each
medicine, patients, hospitals and
doctors should be advised how to
respond. Boris Johnson’s education
presumably included Cicero’s “Salus
populi suprema lex”: the healthhave that will, and too many in the
UK who are hostile to Brexit are
encouraging its intransigence.
Andrew Anderson
Edinburgh- Simon Jenkins thinks he clears up
the mess : “ some border arrangement
down the Irish Sea”, “some continued
customs link to Ireland, explicitly
separate from the rest of the UK”,
“Northern Ireland would remain
in the United Kingdom”, though it
“might be drawn more into the orbit
of the south”. This sort of woolly
thinking is what drives our European
friends and partners to distraction.
He mentions Scotland once, as
being entitled to self-determination.
Scotland voted 62% to remain. So will
it just be England and Wales leaving?
Is that what a non-messy Brexit is?
Tom Swallow
Kenilworth, Warwickshire - Simon Jenkins is correct in
identifying the DUP as the real
stumbling block to a solution to the
backstop impasse. An arrangement
that would see a border in the Irish
Sea would refl ect the will of a majority
of people in Northern Ireland and be
consistent with the DUP’s selective
willingness to deviate from the UK in
matters of social policy.
The DUP’s typical narrowness in
its interpretation of a border in the
Irish Sea, as an attack on unionism,
is contradicted by the existence of
the guarantees in the Belfast/Good
Friday agreement. The agreement
is a backstop on the backstop.
Guaranteed by both governments,
it protects unionism, and the
guarantees mean no change to the
status of Northern Ireland without
the consent of a majority of the
people in Northern Ireland.
It would be ironic if the DUP’s ill-
considered position under its present
leadership – in support of Brexit at
any cost – actually undermined the
unionist position in the longer term,
with the prospect of a border poll
following a no-deal Brexit.
Declan McGonagle
Redcastle, Co Donegal, Ireland
Boris Johnson will be a breeze as
long as we all keep our nerve.
Frederick Cantrell
Richmond, Surrey- After scoring a vital run to keep
the Ashes series alive, will this
match for ever be remembered as
the Jack Leach Test?
Ian Grieve
Gordon Bennett, Trent and Mersey
canal - The superlative innings of Stokes
yesterday was in fact bog standard,
so similar to the many I have played
myself as I dreamed of playing
for England.
Les Bonney (81 years old)
Cheltenham, Gloucestershire - How many more “innings of a
lifetime” can Ben Stokes play?
Bernard Brownsword
Whaley Bridge, Derbyshire - The most surprising comeback
since the fi rst boomerang.
Mick Beeby
Bristol
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letters-termsThe Belfast agreement
is a backstop on the
backstop. Guaranteed
by both governments,
it protects unionismDeclan McGonagleRELEASED BY "What's News" vk.com/wsnws TELEGRAM: t.me/whatsnws