Leaving the Union

John Vassallo’s piece ‘Brexit coming – finally’ (December 24) is contemptuously dismissive of the ‘insane’ 17 million British voters (52 per cent of the voting electorate) who chose to leave the European Union. He understandably omits to mention that Brexit (or something very like it) has happened once before.

In the 16th century, both England/Wales and Scotland (then two separate and independent sovereign states) each chose to leave the European union of Papacy and Empire to join the new movement of north European Protestant powers.

Over the course of several centuries, they joined into one political and economic union and established the sovereignty of an elected national Parliament over Empire, Pope and King.

This United Kingdom became the source and foundation of the political, economic and social liberalism which are supposedly so valued by today’s European Union.

Vassallo warns against Scottish independence, apparently unaware that that was the position in Britain until 1707. More recently, Ireland (both Catholic and Protestant) was one nation within the United Kingdom until 1921.

As with the British departure from the EU, it will eventually be the choice of the Scottish and Northern Irish electorates as to whether they wish to remain parts of the United Kingdom. If not, then the best of luck to them.

The British Empire, with all its faults and its indisputable blessings, will never and can never return. But that is not the only alternative.

A peaceful and prosperous new year to all your readers, including John Vassallo.

Alan Cooke – Sliema

Road art versus safety

This Christmas it’s difficult to stay upbeat for a number of reasons. It’s been a difficult year for many projects as well as people. But at last the final flyovers in Marsa are completed and the artworks are going in.

However, Marsa is far from finished. While the flyovers barely made their target dates, pedestrian and cycle paths, and the lifts for the bridges, will take their time and, as is usual, are unlikely to make their end-of-year targets.

Soon, like the pedestrian underpass at Kappara or the cycle lane that never actually connected to the university, which is about as much use as teats on a giraffe to a community of cheese-loving hobbits, they will be long forgotten.

Much like the fabled national cycling strategy edging closer to five years, with another lacklustre non-cycling caretaker in charge and the infrastructural guidelines for bicycles, scooters and motorbikes also languishing nearly three years in the making?

It makes one wonder who are we building the dribs and drabs of cycling infrastructure for, and importantly how or to what standards.

Drivers would be better served by cycle lanes on the climbing sides of roads than on the downhill sides, where riders can keep up. Similarly, neither will the one-sided shared paths that don’t actually touch the towns they pass by, be used by competitive riders, and commuters will have to criss-cross to stopping traffic as they do so? So is anyone benefitting from no standards?

Yet, the most poignant photo op of 2020, even better than VIPs opening the MCAST cycling bridge that now has a ‘no entry’ sign slapped on it, has to be the same VIPs, flocking around some artworks in a layby while only 10 kilometres away Infrastructure Malta removed the cycle lane when it relaid the Burmarrad road.

Now as laudable as that art may be, the accepted wisdom re reducing congestion is to avoid car use, encourage modal shift and then improve roads. In a ‘do not pass go, do not collect £200’ move, we have gone for improved roads and slapped some artwork in.

Is this really the way forward, and should our focus be on road safety or art?

Jim Wightman – St Julian’s

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