I WELCOMED Sally Willis’ open letter to Carmichael (15.02 2017), which raised very real issues around the referendum – insofar as 16million voted to remain in Europe – 48 per cent.

However, if you look at the wider picture, only 37 per cent of those qualified to vote did vote for Brexit.

So, in reality as Michael House, a London Barrister wrote in the Times recently “we are seeing the tyranny of the minority!”

He concluded his letter by saying “the advisory referendum provided no mandate for Brexit.”

Because of the magnitude of the decision – which will affect us for a 100 years – the referendum, created by Cameron to placate his right wing and the menacing UKIP, should have been designed in a very different way.

Rather than a simple yes or no response, it should have included a third option.

Another safe guard would have been a 10 per cent margin one-way or the other.

It was a crude referendum, emotionally driven by fear and lies, ignoring that 85 per cent of our national economists predicted serious damage to our economy.

That didn’t matter to the “we gotta get our country back!” brigade.

Not that our country had ever lost its sovereignty.

The ignorance on the referendum was frightening, a lot of people voted for many different reasons rather than the referendum itself.

I heard for example of a woman, living in Stroud, who voted out, as she was convinced that she would get a council house!

As the Brexit negotiators rush ahead like headless chickens to the cliff edge, there seems little or no concern whatsoever about the final position we will reach.

As the Brexit debate continues, it almost seems immaterial what the deal is.

Certainly, there is no question that the public won’t have a second referendum to see what they have bought into.

The Remain vote came, with exception of UKIP, from all parties in varying proportions.

However, the concerns of Remain voters have virtually been ignored by both Conservatives and Labour Parties in triggering Brexit article 50.

Ken Clerk was a lone Conservative voice who spoke up for Remain.

Jeremy Corbyn who never really embraced Remain, had the audacity to use the three line whip on his own MPs (fortunately, a fifth of them refused the whip).

Our own MP, Neil Carmichael comes out of this badly, especially as he was the chairman of the Conservative Remain group.

He didn’t even vote for any of the amendments, which he could have done.

Further, he has donned a Brexit cloak by voting to stop the 3,000 refugee children into this country.

Personally, I will never forgive him for this despicable and cruel action.

The only ones that come out well for Remain are the SNP, Plaid Cymru, Lib Dems and the Greens.

Finally, what has been happening around the country, is Remain voters from all parties are setting up groupings to stem the brutal force that a hard Brexit will bring (and that Ukip and the far right of the Conservatives will fully endorse).

Gloucestershire is no exception and under the umbrella of “Unite for Europe” there are now three branches of Glostays in Cheltenham, Gloucester and Stroud.

John Marjoram

Member of Glostays Stroud