The 'will of the people' will be carried out – that is democracy

It dawned on me recently that I must be a very naive person.

Not so long ago we had a referendum asking the question whether or not we wished to remain in the European Community.

By a very large majority, the population of the United Kingdom voted to leave.

Now in my naivety I believed that living in a democracy the will of the people would be acknowledged and the required procedures started to allow us to leave the European Community.

A brief look at history will reveal that for years we have been doing our very best to sell the idea of democracy to many countries around the world.

Now look what happens, because the result of the vote went against the hopes of some, the principles of democracy have been thrown out and everything is being done to sink the referendum result.

Those countries to whom we have tried to sell the idea of democracy must be laughing their heads off as this country appears to be ignoring all that we have been trying to export.

Our country, with the Mother of all Parliaments, no longer accepts the will of the people, because those who did not get their way are doing all that is possible to defy the decision of the population.

As Voltaire possibly said: “I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend with my life your right to say it!”

Colin Bower
Nottingham

So it seems that, despite everything that Gina Miller achieved, Parliament has decided it is obliged to buy a pig in a poke, and vote blindly for Article 50 before it even sees just how inadequate the Government’s Brexit plans are.

Apparently Parliament can’t defy “the will of the people”, especially when they are people like the billionaires, newspaper owners and editors, frackers, oligarchs, wealthy landowners and the other right wing self-servers who will benefit from removing the UK government from the last vestige of left-leaning scrutiny and balance – the EU. (Oddly, Westminster happily defied the interests of the people in opposing pieces of environmental protection and social justice legislation to come out of Brussels.)

Since the Leader of the Opposition refuses to either lead or oppose, the “urban elite” (yes, that’s you and your pals, Theresa) can now do what they like. This includes feeding the public a constant diet of “alternative truth” and then leaping headlong down the precipitous, unmapped path to national oblivion (but personal gain) when “the will of the people” (or 37 per cent of them at least) provided the result they always wanted.

We’re allowing them to take our country back – just how far back is yet to be seen.

In 20 years, when we sadly reflect on this catastrophe – Britain isolated and drowning in debt, a fragmented and reactionary Europe impotent against the bullying of a redneck America, a resurgent imperialist Russia and a ubiquitous China – we’ll be pining for statesmen such as Ken Clarke, and lining up voodoo dolls of self-servers like Johnson and the intransigent and incompetent Corbyn who led us all into the abyss; but all too late. I pity the kids – this is the future we’ve handed them.

Geoff Burnes
Address supplied

I just love Donald Trump’s new saying of presenting “alternative facts”. I can just imagine a person standing up in court, when they have been accused of punching some poor person and then saying, “Your Honour, please let me present the alternative facts. The accused kept hitting his head against my closed fist, and that is how he came to be injured!”

Or when you are stopped for speeding by the police: “Officer, I wasn’t speeding, please may I present the alternative facts – the road was going much more slowly than my car!”

Peter O’Keeffe
Faversham

The prospect of Donald Trump being welcomed into this country has already prompted a massive number of signatories to the petition to prevent a state visit.

Given Mrs May’s determination to go ahead, we would do well to consider the most effective demonstration of our feelings when the visit occurs.

Here’s an idea: no shouting, no banners, no noise. Just thousands and thousands of people standing in silence with their backs turned.

Lynda Newbery
Address supplied

As it seems the majority of our MPs are unwilling to carry out their sworn duty to represent their electors according to our, albeit imperfect, democracy, then perhaps we should just abandon our parliament, saving the massive repair costs in the process and revert to government by referendum.

However it should be remembered that countries like Switzerland who are frequent users of referenda require higher majorities than the almost insignificant margin than Brexit achieved. Indeed I seem to recall Nigel Farage saying he would be demanding a rerun when he thought the Remain campaign might win by a few points.

We should all to write to our MPs demanding they carry out the function they were elected and are being paid to do.

G Forward
​Stirling

Corbyn seems to have lost control. He told his party what to do and he was ignored. What kind of leader is this? Will he now remove the whip from these renegades as he should, including the whips themselves? Or will he disband the Labour Party, because it is no longer a party?

Just like a child at school on an exam day, one of their number goes sick because she just could not face it. Diane Abbott just could not face it.

Come on Corbyn – show some kind of guts and try and be a leader instead of an old dinosaur.

J H Moffatt
Bredbury