EU has brought us peace in our time

ON, Sunday 11th November, we remembered the fallen whilst seeming to forget the value of the most obvious memorial to their sacrifice - the European Union - guarantor of peace, harmony, friendship and cooperation on a continent riven by centuries of slaughter.

Many, if not most, of those marching today voted in 2016 to leave an institution founded in 1947, in the aftermath of another war, partly caused by the vengeful settlement imposed on the Germans by the French and the British in 1918.

I pray that it might have entered many heads - as they studied the names on local war memorials - that the existence of the EU 104 years ago would have prevented the Great War. It is very sad that so many have been duped by a small clique of rightwingers and their media whose dubious motives are based in the very nationalism, even jingoism, which caused war in 1914. Doubtless those commemorating are patriots.

Do they really want their country to be worse off, isolated and vulnerable? - because no post Brexit settlement can compare favourably to the deal we already have with the EU. If we are really sincere about honouring the sacrifice of our soldiers and sincere about preserving the peace in their memory, we must demand a second referendum and wrest the power of decision from the woefully inept politicians in charge of the Labour and Tory parties. John Payne