It’s OK for British MPs to try to avoid a no-deal Brexit

Nigel Jackson (Letters, 26/9) misses two key points. Boris Johnson travelled around Britain before the referendum in a bus emblazoned with the false claim that leaving would permit another £350 million a week for the health service. This was the sum Britain was paying the EU but ignored the payments from the EU. Those voting to leave were conned and so the result of the referendum was unsound.

All opposition parties want an election but only after Johnson has complied with his statutory obligation to request an extension if he has no deal. An election now would shut down proceedings in parliament an absolve Johnson from the request and open the door to no deal.

It is a legitimate priority for MPs to seek to avoid no deal not only because the referendum was unsound, but also because we now know more about the adverse effects of no deal, which have informed many people to change from leave to remain. Now Johnson says that if parliament does not pass a motion of no confidence he will assume it approves his no-deal strategy. This would be a false assumption. If this additional falsehood is his basis, as it appears it might be, for another prorogation, we can affirm the view that Johnson is unfit to be PM.

Stewart Harvey, Pialba, Qld

Poor environment record

Scott Morrison’s interest in all things environmental is welcome but will he confront fundamental issues or simply apply more Band-Aids. The Australian landscape was relatively pristine in 1788, but 230 years of coming a distant second to the mantra of population growth and exploitation, and the environmental consequences are not pretty.

Wildlife extinctions, exhausted river systems, cedar forests gone, weed and feral infestations, diseased and dying eucalypt, pandanus, mangrove and other native species, widespread deforestation to expand grazing land to marginal country, and fish stocks constantly under threat. This is the legacy of governments tying population growth to economic prosperity.

The generational benchmark slide, the incremental degradation, the boiled-frog syndrome, continues year after year. Waste management is what good governments do before smoko; it is not the main game.

William Mapleston, Ashgrove, Qld

Scott Morrison is right to be concerned about plastic pollution in the oceans but I sense that this will serve as a convenient distraction from the carbon dioxide problem.

As far as plastics are concerned, cleaning up the ocean aside, the solution is relatively easy. Give the packaging industry six months before making its product illegal unless the plastic is compostable or recyclable. In addition to this, make importers aware we will no longer accept imports packaged with or containing non-biodegradable plastics.

A considerable amount of our product packaging is either unnecessary or can use alternative materials. Will it cost jobs? Yes, but with some pressure the relevant industries will come up to a viable alternative that will create jobs. Damaging the marine environment far outweighs the negatives of temporary job losses.

Roger Bridgland, West Hobart, Tas

Wisdom over Folau

No comment, anywhere, at any time, has given offence (“Folau ‘offered apology over breach’ ”, 26/9). Each person is responsible for their own reaction to a comment or action. If they feel angry, hurt or offended, this is their own doing. Whenever there is any external contact, our minds recognise it, evaluate it — a sensation according to this assessment arises on the body, and we (generally) react to this sensation. But we don’t have to. We can train ourselves not to react to these transient, impermanent sensations, and to act with wisdom rather than ignorance.

Michael Cunningham, West End, Qld