Good try Mr Mitchell (The Voice, Feb 28) in following the well tried Brexiteer path of ignoring any debate based upon facts and evidence and deciding ‘not to read’ any further part of my piece of Feb 21, you ‘appear’, (note the word), to resemble the ‘fingers in the ears/closed eyes whilst uttering, can’t hear/can’t see you’ brigade. That is your choice.
I am fairly confident that you are correct in stating that TV adverts are carefully scrutinised but if, in a TV or other advert the individual used states, ‘my skin appears softer’, it does not mean that the skin is softer, though this is the impression which the advertiser hopes/intends will influence the viewer to buy the advertised product. That is the point I was trying to make.
If my intention has led to some confusion for you I apologise and hope this is now clear for you.
Had you continued reading, it might have caused you to realise that my piece was a little deeper than TV adverts.
It mainly concerned Brexit and I would recommend that you read the many enlightened pieces by various remain supporter contributors published at various times. The unmistakeable theme running through them has been proper consideration of facts and evidence. Burying one’s head in the sand cannot change facts and solid evidence. It merely means that you can’t see or hear anything. Why not give more than a glance to recent well constructed and enlightening submissions by I. Sloan and A. Meekings?
I was a small child when the Second World War began and remember many events, including the glow in the sky as industrial and other areas burned after Nazi bombing. But my most vivid recollection is of newspaper pictures of ‘human skeletons’ in striped, pyjama-like rags, whose bones were barely held in place by their skin and whose eyes had all but disappeared into their skulls.
Still images were particularly horrifying but film newsreels often showed the contrast between healthy, relatively well-fed troops and the starving wretches which hatred and intolerance had produced.
I will never forget seeing the evidence of what hatred and ignorance can produce. Without knowledge either visual or otherwise of these actual events they are almost impossible to envisage.
The EU came into being as part of a co-ordinated attempt in a more civilised world to create improved harmony between peoples after the Second World War.
Like many things it is still work in progress so we shouldn’t throw out the baby with the bath water.
When will Brexiteers engage with facts and hard evidence instead of ‘gut-feel’, hope, belief etc. or will they forever rely upon shouting ‘scaremonger’ at those who have tried to contribute positively to what is the most important decision the UK has had to decide upon in the living memory of most people?
Despite daily evidence which should cause Brexiteers to think again, they seem hell-bent upon winning at any cost even though the ‘prize’ is likely to be a bucket of excrement.
It had seemed that Fascism and ultra right-wing activity were a thing of the past.
How wrong we were as the ugly head is rearing up once again in various parts of Europe and elsewhere in the world. Could it be due to the climate of hatred and intolerance that is being whipped up, (by a relatively small number of people), against anyone who is ‘different’ or who is prepared to display any kind of understanding and tolerance? In case it may have already been forgotten may I remind that Jo Cox MP was murdered, not by someone mentally deranged but by someone with a burning hatred of refugees and people with compassion for their plight.
I am not suggesting above that Brexiteers are Fascists, far from it. But people need to be increasingly understanding and empathetic, not more isolated from each other. If not where do we stop, or do UK counties then pull away from each other, then cities, then towns, then villages and streets within village.
Look out! Squadrons of straight bananas heading for UK!
G Ogden
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