Wrexiteer = one who seeks to wreck exit

In his latest letter (December 27) Nigel Jones proudly invents a new term of abuse: “Wrexiteer”. Unfortunately for him this designation is much more appropriately applied to a diehard Remainer such as himself (Wrexiteer = one who seeks to wreck exit). More seriously, can I remind him that the rules of the 2016 referendum were very clearly stated in the infamous £9.3 million leaflet. It reads “The EU Referendum is a once in a generation decision”. A generation is usually reckoned as 20 to 25 years so simple arithmetic places a future EU referendum no earlier than 2036. Obviously this inconvenient fact is not to the liking of the “People’s Vote” brigade so initially they pretended to respect the result of the 2016 referendum but instead lobbied for a vote on the final deal. Belatedly they realised that the final deal (i.e. the Trade Agreement) would not be negotiated until after we are due to leave the EU on 29 March. So the new tactic is to claim that Leave voters did not understand what they were voting for back in 2016 but are now much better informed. The second part of this patronising claim does have some truth to it but, most definitely, not in the way the diehards are hoping. We now know that :1. Project Fear Mark 1 was an ever-escalating barrage of lies and distortion in a desperate attempt to compensate for the lack of a positive narrative as to why we should remain in the EU. 2. The ongoing Project Fear Mark 2 has enjoyed greater success by irresponsibly demonising a “No Deal” outcome, and thereby totally undermining our negotiating position. 3. The heavily Pro-remain Westminster/ Whitehall bubble, encouraged by Big Business and EU funded lobbyists, had no intention of fully honouring the 2016 decision. 4. Many months of humiliating and domestically acrimonious Trade Deal negotiations still lay ahead if we sign up to the botched Withdrawal Agreement, virtually dictated to us by a triumphant European Commission. 5. We are not negotiating with 27 friendly nation states but a hostile European Commission. 6. A change of Government would not improve matters as the Labour Party is advocating a fantasy re-negotiation strategy that has no chance of being taken seriously in Brussels. 7. It would cost us £39 billion for the botched Withdrawal Agreement, although there is still no transparency as to how this massive sum was arrived at. 8. Populist parties are on the rise throughout Europe and recent events in Paris should be a warning to the Westminster/whitehall bubble that democracy is a fragile process dependent on mutual respect, currently in very short supply. It is very difficult to see how this new information would provide any assistance to a future Remain campaign were our politicians foolish enough to extend Article 50 and hold a further referendum. Roger White Larkhall, Bath