To blazes with the lot of them

Ruth GrimsleyÂ
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Oak Park, Sheffield, S10

I write to offer my thoughts on Veronica Hardstaff's letter of November 9. I voted "Remain" in the EU referendum, but the Leavers won it. Why the demand for a second referendum, when we've already voted?

A "People's Vote" is what we've already had. Underneath the movement for another vote is a nasty and insidious assumption that the "wrong sort of people" voted "Leave," just like "the wrong sort of snow" was unclearable from the railway lines. Well, tough. That's democracy. The vote of everyone has the same value. I've read all sorts of contemptuous allegations about Leavers: how they're stupid and ignorant and were deceived by false promises. I even saw a Times columnist link voting "Leave" to obesity. Are you fat? What can you possibly know!

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As it happens, my conversations with ordinary people prior to the referendum demonstrated that they weren't fooled by propaganda at all. They knew they might be worse off if we left the EU, and that they had the most to lose by leaving, but they were prepared to face that. What they wanted was "to make our own laws." 

Furthermore, has it not occurred to Ms Hardstaff and her like that the more difficult it is for us to leave the EU, the more important it is for us to go? Did we ever consent to join a union of states, to be treated like a Confederate Secessionist state in the USA should we ever want to leave? I don't think so.

To blazes with the lot of them - people who don't understand the meaning of democracy, (which includes acceptance of a people's decision even if you don't like it), people who think they're better than other people, coteries of people who never go near ordinary people and yet think they can make decisions for them. Let's just get out of the EU right now. The remaining countries can call us Perfidious Albion: and we will live with the consequences whatever they may be. Although actually, I suspect that it will be business as usual.