WHAT a wonderful occasion was the 2019 Taunton Flower Show; spectacular, entertaining and safe.

Many thanks to all involved in organising and implementing this amazing event. I even was awarded a first prize for my pot plants.

No fear of a USA-style shooting incident because of sensible gun control laws, introduced in response to outrages at Hungerford and Dunblane.

However, our current right-wing Government has indicated a possible relaxation of these essential laws in response to populist pressure from the USA as part of the price we must pay for a a post-Brexit Trade deal.

In addition, we must accept inferior food hygiene standards, coercion in the choice of partners in the rollout of 5G telecommunications, and the commercialisation of the NHS to predatory transatlantic organisations driven by excess profit at the expense of people with only modest means.

This is a country that has inveigled our country in two ruinous wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and a possible third war with Iran through its rejection of a nuclear disarmament treaty endorsed by principal members of the EEC. And we as a country, led by the most right-wing government we have ever had, are on the cusp of rejecting the progressive polices of a liberal, progressive and peaceable organisation and seriously contemplating hitching our wagon to the greatest threat to world peace in living memory to satisfy the egos of opportunist Tory politicians.

Sadly, the USA is increasing presenting as a political entity locked into the political and religious mores of the eighteen century and would see the UK following in their footsteps. Sadly Brexit is an almost certainty in spite of the best endeavours of moderate politicians of all persuasions.

However, the conflict between a moderate Europe and an increasingly reactive America for the soul of the UK is only just beginning. The question of whether we remain a liberal centralist democracy as part of Europe or an offshoot of increasingly intolerant Transatlantic stockade with a xenophobia mentality is yet to be resolved.

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In any case we soon will be confronted with the prospect of protracted negotiations to rejoin the EEC as the only sensible way forward for a state riven with economic and social problems as a result of disastrous political decisions by wealthy politicians obsessed with short-term gain.

This is a mission that must be pursued by the young as the elderly can no longer be trusted in order to ensure that future generations may enjoy events like Taunton Flower Show without fear of alien cultures and their murderous practices casting a shadow over the festivities.

DAVID SMITH

Bradford On Tone