For the Brexiteer it may be a case of winning the battle and losing your marbles

Imagine you are a Brexit Leave voter who was overjoyed with the result of the referendum. There’s every chance you might now find yourself sitting in a darkened room wondering what has actually happened.

Yes, you knew some of the facts and predictions made by Boris and his team were questionable, but, hey ho, the other side was doing the same thing. You’re now finding out that your side’s porkies were considerably porkier than the other lot’s.

On top of this, the main man you hoped would lead the UK to a bright future of freedom and closed borders has exited the stage with a knife between his shoulderblades, with no sign of him having put up much of a fight. His treacherous assassin, previously known as his right hand man who would have partnered him in the realisation of the Leavers’ arcadian dream, is now himself history.

And the talismanic freedom fighter who spent 17 years wrapped in the Union flag while battling the EU has declared, “My work here is done”.

So, just who’s left now that your team’s gone? The Prime Minister, who didn’t want to leave the UK because he was a Remain voter, went immediately on reduced hours and, as I write this, might not be prime minister for anything more than a few hours because one of the two women fighting for leadership seems about to be elevated to the top job.

This news, bad as it is for you, will come as something of a relief because although she is a dyed-in-the-wool Tory Remain voter and, unforgivably, not a mother, she’s better than the other one, a Remain turned No voter who has only been in parliament 20 minutes and was previously a banker.

You might think your only consolation is that you voted Leave partly to give the Establishment a bit of a kicking. Well, that plan doesn’t seem to have worked. Remember, we’ve had Tories in this country for 300 years. It’ll take more than democracy to shift them.

And finally, you might think that this must be the only referendum in history where both sides have come out of it equally badly. Just as well, then, it’s not legally binding.

IAN MCELROY Heathfield Road, Thurso

We, the British public, have watched open-mouthed as members of the Conservative Party have regressed to childhood, hurling taunts at each other in the Westminster playground, whilst doing their utmost to unseat their rivals by fair means or foul.

Now, after being assured that women politicians would never indulge in such petty backstabbing, we discover that Andrea Leadsom slipped a carefully targeted knife into her rival in the Conservative leadership contest, Theresa May. Though she has strenuously denied claiming that her credentials as a mother gives her an advantage over Mrs May, her protests were in vain.

I’m irresistibly reminded of Dennis Potter’s classic 1979 television Play For Today, Blue Remembered Hills, in which the child characters are played by adult actors. Potter’s play encapsulates his belief that the distinction between childhood and adulthood is far less clear than we think. The film highlights children’s propensity for bullying, for forming allegiances against the weakest members of their group, and their capacity for committing acts of horrific cruelty against their chosen victims.

Mrs Leadsom’s early withdrawal from the leadership campaign, citing the need for a quick resolution in the UK’S interests, is a strategic exercise in damage limitation. I hope she has learnt a valuable lesson in how to behave like an adult.

CAROLYN TAYLOR Broughty Ferry, Dundee I was saddened to learn that Andrea Leadsom has decided to leave the race to become the next Prime Minister, as I think she would have made an excellent one. However, she has selflessly put the interests of the country first by saying it was important for the stability of the UK to have in place as soon as possible a prime minister, I salute her courage and humility.

I find it interesting that she could not continue as she had less than 30 per cent support for her leadership bid from the Conservative party. It is such a shame that Jeremy Corbyn could not take a leaf out of her book and put the interests of the Labour Party first and resign – if there is to be a general election in the near future, Labour are in turmoil and an ineffective opposition. GORDON KENNEDY Simpson Square, Perth