ES Views: Italian minister shows little grasp of Brexit sentiment

It was good to read that Italy’s minister of economy and finance, Pier Carlo Padoan, thinks Brexit will make the EU stronger [“Brexit brought the EU together rather than splitting us apart”, November 20]. Unfortunately, I fear the attitudes that he displays may have the opposite effect.

Nowhere is the question considered of how the EU came to lose an important member. He does acknowledge that resentment against the union has grown, fuelling radical and anti-EU movements and parties across Europe, but thinks that this is because the EU has not done enough.

If he spoke with Brexit voters in this country they might have told him that the opposite is true, but I suspect Signor Padoan was really writing to other insiders such as himself.

In a democracy you need to carry the people with you, and if you don’t they will find a way to let you know. As Oscar Wilde might have said, “to lose one country may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose any more looks like carelessness”.
Jeremy Polmear

Pier Carlo Padoan is either ignorant or arrogant in his pledge to speed up the integration of the remaining 27 countries of the EU when overwhelming numbers of the population in those countries desire quite the opposite.

If he is unaware of the growing strength of the Five Star movement in his own country, the National Front in France and populist parties in Austria, Poland, Hungary and even famously liberal Holland, then I suspect it will soon be arriverderci to Signor Padoan.

As even the previously unassailable German Chancellor Angela Merkel has just discovered, you ignore the wishes of your people at your peril.
Howard Ricklow

In the hearts of hardline Brexiteers there lies a deep conviction that mainland Europe “owes us” for saving it in the two World Wars. While it is indeed true that we did, it must be remembered that, as a nation, we were heroes then.

The EU president recently thanked Britain for our fortitude during the wars. However, our current headless-chicken performance is likely to erode and deplete all the honour which our historical actions have accrued.
James McGrory

Telling the EU not to put “politics above prosperity” reveals how fundamentally David Davis misunderstands the European project.

While the UK sees the EU in economic and transactional terms, on the continent it is a strategic political project that seeks to advance the European cause through co-operation. Davis’s pleas will fall on deaf ears; the other 27 states will never put prosperity above politics.
Rohan Moorthy

High Brexit bill is surely no surprise

I was sorry to read the negative comments from former education minister Robert Halfon about the likely large bill for Britain as we leave the EU [“Bananas! New Tory revolt on £40bn bill for Brexit”, November 20].

As a Remain voter he should have been saying “I told you so”, except that he and the rest of the Tory party didn’t. More seriously, this shows that Brexiteers such as Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and Nigel Farage lied about the costs of leaving the EU.

After all, it was their bus in the referendum campaign which claimed we would have millions of pounds a week to spend if we left, showing their ignorance of the EU and the rules we signed up for 40 years ago.
David Reed

I am not sure why Tory Brexiteers would go bananas over an added bill of some £18 billion. After all, this only represents one year of the added funding the NHS will enjoy once we have left the union — a year will soon pass and then that cash can be pumped into the NHS as promised.
Tom McAra

Goldmans would be no loss to Britain

So Lloyd Blankfein is considering relocating Goldman Sachs from London to the EU [November 20]. Given that 80 per cent of what the global financial industry gets up to is based on generating commissions and bonuses, the disappearance of Goldman Sachs and its ilk will be no great loss.

It does not recognise national jurisdiction and drains otherwise productive economies wherever it finds them. If Brexit means it turns its gaze towards the EU, this is good news for Britain.
Martin Kennedy

The moves of the European Medicines Agency and European Banking Authority are huge losses to Tower Hamlets.

As well as more than 1,000 jobs, we will lose the business generated by 36,000 visitors to the agencies each year. Brexit Secretary David Davis misled people when he said they would be able to stay, a sign of how incompetent he is.
Elaine Bagshaw, Lib-Dem candidate for Poplar & Limehouse

The dreadful service on the Piccadilly line

When is something going to be done about the appalling service on the Piccadilly line to help us beleaguered daily users?

In the past two days alone it has been an unalloyed nightmare travelling into and out of central London. On Sunday there was a signal failure at Gloucester Road and this was exacerbated by a broken-down train at Acton Town, which as a station seems to have more signal failures than the rest of the line put together.

The result was that I missed a train on which I had pre-booked at King’s Cross, so had to pay again and was an hour late for my appointment. On Monday, still reeling from that awful day’s travelling, there was a signal failure at South Kensington, which meant a journey which should take 40 minutes took an hour-and-a-half. I was late for work — again.

These disruptions are becoming almost the norm. It wasn’t long ago that we suffered industrial action on the line because of the proposed introduction of the Night Tube. The vast majority of us who live on the terrible Piccadilly line couldn’t care less about a night service — we just want a reliable day service. Is it too much to ask?
Simon Warr

MPs are betraying animal welfare

Despite living in a land of “animal lovers” our MPs have voted to reject a bill that recognises that animals feel pain and emotion. This decision is crass and defies logic. Do MPs get a frisson of pleasure by going against our wishes?

In EU law animals are “sentient”. That might not make much of a difference but at least it is stated in black and white and could one day mean something to the millions of animals slaughtered, vivisected or used for sport.
Sara Starkey

At a time when people are becoming more sympathetic with regard to the treatment of animals, our MPs’ apparent refusal to recognise that animals feel pain will only further alienate millennials whose support they need.
Helen Bailey