Rarely has a letter made me feel so angry

RARELY has a letter in the Echo made me as angry as that from Brian Axten (June 14), in which he implies that anyone voting other than Conservative in the recent General Election was voting against the national interest.

We are not at war, Mr Axten, we are entering sensitive negotiations in which all arguments need to be carefully considered. So an outcome in which the Prime Minister cannot go ahead without regard for any other opinions is excellent news.

Indeed, many Leave voters disagree with her approach.

A frequent complaint before the Referendum was that the EU of 2016 was a very different organisation from the EEC that we had joined in 1973; people taking this line, who liked the “Common Market” (as it was often called in the 1970s) but don’t like the present EU ideals of greater political union, would presumably want to stay within the Single Market and the Customs Union.

Furthermore, the General Election was not just about Brexit; it was deciding who looks after the economy, defence, health, education, etc for the next five years.

It really is outrageous to suggest, as Mr Axten does, that anyone voting for a different party is putting a gun to the country’s head.

The bitterness of Mr Axten’s letter is highlighted by the contrast with Philip Leicester’s letter on the same page, in which the candidate who obtained the fewest votes in Loughborough is nevertheless happy to celebrate the democratic process.

Anthony Kay Loughborough