If you think getting an Irish passport is hassle-free, you’re wrong

After recounting how his Malaysian girlfriend was badly treated by UK immigration officials, Pat Butcher announced that he had applied for an Irish passport (Voices, 11 September). He wrote: “The Irish have been called many things over the years ... I never recall ‘petty and mean-spirited’ being prominent among those accusations”.

I am British and I have been resident in Ireland for 22 years. I recently applied for Irish citizenship. As is usual in these situations, you have to sign and date the application form. However, in this case, you have to do it in front of a notary public who then has to say how your identity was verified (usually through a passport) and sign and date the form. I gave the correct date of 11 September 2017 and the notary public wrote 11 September 2015. He had only just finished entering the details of my passport, which was issued in 2015, and that is what probably led to the mistake.

Four days after submitting the application, I received a letter to say that my application had been rejected because of the mistake. The application had been closed and there was no possibility of appeal. The notary public wrote to the citizenship office to say that I had given the correct date and that the mistake was entirely his. He also sent a new declaration on which all the details were correct.

I have heard nothing more about this matter and so I assume that my application is still closed. I wish Pat Butcher luck in his quest for an Irish passport but I can assure him that being petty and mean-spirited is not unique to the UK.

Adrian C Brock
Ireland

Brexit will erode our workforce – and take us back to darker days

Some years ago, before the influx of EU nationals from the new EU member states arrived to take up the low-paid land work and pack house jobs, etc, these jobs were still done, who did them? It wasn’t local people, it was mainly illegal immigrants, but on lower wages and paying NI contribution and income tax and with no legal workers’ rights.

At that time I was a serving police officer and it was a regular occurrence that these individuals were arrested by a patrolling officer on suspicion of working illegally or overstaying, and later deported. This was time-consuming, costly and a drain on police and immigration resources. It filled police custody blocks, and removed officers from the streets.

After being deported from the country, the jobs they had filled were not filled by locals but again by more illegal immigrants.

The funny thing is, all those illegal immigrants were mainly from the countries that later became EU members, and they then returned to work legally, paying NI contributions and income tax.

All that Brexit will achieve will be turning those that were illegal immigrants and paying no tax (who then became legal immigrants paying tax) back into illegal immigrants paying no tax. All that will be achieved by Brexit is that police officers that were removed from the streets to deal with illegal immigrants will once again be removed from the streets to deal with illegal immigrants.

All that will be achieved by Brexit, is that tax revenues will fall and policing costs increase.

All that Brexit will achieve is that workers’ rights – even illegals are workers – will be eroded.

It’s just a vicious circle, all in the name of achieving nothing.

Robert Greasley
Iserlohn

We have become the black sheep of world nations

The UK media, The Independent in particular, should make more of the fact that Theresa May addressed an almost deserted assembly hall at the United Nations. Correspondents keep repeating the phrase “Theresa May addressed world leaders” – but only if they bothered to read today’s UK newspapers. Can you not do a head count and tell us how many leaders or even deputy leaders were present to hear her address?

Why can’t we be honest as a nation and face the reality that the world leaders were not present, are probably not listening, and are unlikely to take notice of Little Britain. We no longer punch above our weight – we haven’t for a long time, if we ever did.

G Hurley
Pewsey

Climate change is more important than a cheap flight

Sir, hurrah for Dr House! (“I have no sympathy for the Ryanair passengers”, 20 September). He could also have added that these “53 pounds of carbon dioxide (CO) per mile of flight”, chucked out at altitude, are far more damaging than those produced at ground level. Additional research to that which he mentions indicates that one cheap flight wipes out the value of twenty years of recycling.

Yet all our politicians seem to care about with their wrangling over extra runways and airport taxes is for the public to be able to sit by a pool quaffing cocktails as cheaply as possible while the planet burns. Personally I have never been on an aeroplane. I travel abroad by train or ferry, though not often because I need to save up.

Allowing unrestricted air travel for no good reason, other than to get a tan makes Nero look like an amateur.

Felicity McWeeney
Morpeth

If May thinks we have so many European traits, why is Brexit happening?

“It is the fundamental values that we share – values of fairness, justice and human rights – that have created the common cause between nations to act together in our shared interest and form the multilateral system. And it is this rules-based system which we have developed – including the institutions, the international frameworks of free and fair trade; agreements such as the Paris Climate Change accord; and laws and conventions like the Non-Proliferation Treaty – which enables the global cooperation through which we can protect those values.”

This quote from May’s speech suggests that she is in favour of a union between nations that delivers all these benefits. So why Brexit?

Peter Cole
West Woodburn

Hurricane Trump

If another hurricane hits the coast of America, they should call it Donald because of all the havoc he’s causing!

Sarah Pegg
East Sussex