Brexit represents the minority, not the 'will of the people'

Patrick Cockburn starts his excellent article on the “Good Ship Brexit” with the common fallacy – that “a majority of the British people voted to leave the EU”. In fact the Leave voters were 37 per cent of the electorate and 26 per cent of the population. 63 per cent of the electorate did not vote to leave. We have been taken over by a minority.

Philip Stewart
Oxford

Rob Merrick reports that “MPs of all parties accused Theresa May of delivering a ‘blindfold Brexit’ after she admitted her deal left the public in the dark on a range of vital questions about Britain’s future”.

Surely that’s exactly what “the people” (as we are obliged to call Leavers) voted for – an almighty leap into the dark, various false promises (aka lies) notwithstanding.

Beryl Wall
London W4

Nearly two and a half years after the referendum and intense negotiations with the EU, Dominic Raab, who until recently had responsibility for negotiating the withdrawal agreement, has admitted in a Radio 4 interview that the deal that has been negotiated with the EU would be even worse than staying in the EU. That just about says it all.

I agree with him – if that is the best deal we can get after months of negotiation, let's stay in the EU and the government can turn to all the other things that need their urgent attention, like the NHS, prisons, social care, the benefits system, the police, the environment and education.

Dr John Coppendale​
Cambridge

Mr Ibrahim (Letters) is correct that the people voted for Brexit in 2016, and he is correct that the majority of MPs are in favour of remaining in the EU. What he fails to acknowledge is that those MPs were elected in 2017 as an expression of the will of the people to stop Brexit once they realised that their decision had been based on outright lies told to them before, during and after the referendum.

If any party needs to be careful it is the Conservative Party. The majority of the lies were told by Conservative MPs, and the worst offenders were Conservative ministers such as Davis, Hunt, Gove and Johnson. The Conservative Party has shown itself to be one of liars and chancers and they should be ashamed of themselves for still lying and still claiming to represent the will of the people, which they clearly do not.

Philip Wheeler
Address supplied

Really enjoyed the piece by Jonathan Liew (Tennis is on fire, fatally divided and without an answer to the question: what does its future look like?). Excellent writing.

Jennifer Herbert
Address supplied

After reading Chris Blackhurst’s article on HS2, I would be grateful if The Independent would publish a map of the country – to show our politicians and anyone who thinks Birmingham is “the north”. For most people in the country it is in the south, and despite them talking of a Northern Powerhouse being Manchester and Leeds, there are still vast swathes of the country (York, Newcastle, and the whole of NORTHumberland) that need to be considered.

Ken Twiss
Cleveland