There's no time for pessimism from pro-Europeans

Pro-European protesters campaigning to keep strong links with the EU - Credit: PA

A route to rejoining the EU is possible, says reader Mark Sullivan.

Judging from your readers’ letters, they are being too pessimistic on our rejoining the EU. Just because you can’t see the immediate pathway unfolding, doesn’t reduce the inevitability of market forces which resolutely point to this conclusion.

How many commentators for example predicted the swift unravelling of the Soviet empire due to market forces? Ignore what politicians say, just concentrate on the facts.
Mark Sullivan
Bournemouth

A quick tour of newspapers and political parties will reveal none that wish to take up the battle so apparently completely and recently lost. The political parties now look either exhausted or brainwashed.

Yet we have to rejoin the European mainstream somehow. Failure will lead not only to a rapidly falling standard of living relative to Europe, but also a despair amongst innovators, those who have the ability and desire to place their own country on an upward trajectory.

We cannot be bothered with yet more referendum games. We need one general election in which the deciding issue is whether to rejoin or not rejoin the EU.

It will become glaringly obvious that Brexit has not worked. It will therefore become equally glaringly obvious what we have got to do about it.
Ramon Prasad

It was heart-breaking reading the correspondence here about the damage done to our young people by the UK government’s senseless and cruel decision to leave the Erasmus scheme.

Furthermore, it seems there will no longer be automatic recognition of the qualifications these young people worked so hard for.

It is this same younger generation who will bear the incalculable cost, financial and otherwise, of Brexit (which the huge majority of them did not vote for) and Covid while trying to deal with the mess their elders have made of the planet.

Surely the UK government could at least provide them with the tools – such as Erasmus – to deal with these massive challenges.

It now seems the only hope, at least for young people in Scotland, is for Scotland to leave the fractured UK and rejoin our European friends and allies.
Keith Johnston
Moffat

Robert Bell (Letters, TNE #229). is quite right to blame our electoral system for our present woes. He is also right to say that it is time for the proportionally disenfranchised majority to mount a campaign for change. We have. Search for ‘Make Votes Matter’ and join us.
Christine Seymour
Hornchurch

Well said David Hogg (Letters, TNE #229) Keir Starmer simply has to “lead a partnership” to form a government which then brings in proportional representation.

The current rules of the game means a winner-takes-all, unrepresentative, undemocratic system, and guess what; that is the only game in town.

Winning the most seats delivers power, so do the maths!

Play the system, then reform can be implemented and my vote, along with millions of others in safe seats, will count for something.

My relationship with my country will be greatly enhanced.
Geoffrey Collett
Alcester

• Have your say by emailing theneweuropean@archant.co.uk. Our deadline for letters is Tuesday at 9am for inclusion in Thursday’s edition. Please be concise – letters over five paragraphs long may be edited before printing.