The Brexit debacle has exposed the self-interest of those elected to serve in the Commons
SIR – The process of leaving the European Union has exposed the venality and self-interest of the political class in this country. With a few exceptions, politicians have sought to water down the clear mandate to leave the EU or else to thwart it altogether. The Prime Minister has created confusion by refusing to heed advice, in spite of record-breaking votes against her Withdrawal Agreement.
It is time that our political system was cleaned up and politicians held to account. Alexander Stilwell
Godalming, Surrey
SIR – Last April marked the 60th anniversary of my joining the parliamentary press gallery. The following 12 years included spells as a BBC political correspondent, a spokesman for Edward Heath until he became prime minister (and took us into the European Economic Community), and as the first parliamentary adviser to the CBI.
I have never seen such a pathetic and inadequate House of Commons as we have today. Faced with the most important decision for several decades, they have been confronted with their own shortcomings – and their lack of business experience – on both sides of the House. Edward Rayner
Eastbourne, East Sussex
SIR – Only a few short weeks ago it was possible to make the feeble joke that we were heading for the worst of all possible outcomes – the UK as a vassal state, with a Marxist government at home.
In the last few days that possibility has suddenly become worth a punt at the bookies. David Harrington
Hook, Hampshire
SIR – Is the BBC Parliament channel the new reality television? It certainly keeps me entertained. John Howden-richards
Abingdon, Oxfordshire SIR – Brexit is not a game of fives in the quad; it is a matter of the life or death of a free and independent UK nation state.
DSA Murray
Dorking, Surrey
SIR – Allister Heath (Comment, March 14) is right to argue that the MPS who rejected a no-deal Brexit have put Britain’s “political traditions” in “jeopardy”.
In The Lion and the Unicorn, George Orwell identified their predecessors as capable of responding aptly to “a tug from below” (even when not particularly keen to do so). The loss of this ability gives us a measure of democratic decline. In the context of a referendum in which a simple question prompted a straightforward answer, it also gives us a measure of political idiocy. Professor Richard Mullender
Newcastle Law School
SIR – Theresa May opposes a second referendum on the basis that the people have already voted. Yet with no material changes to her deal, she believes in forcing MPS into a second and even a third “meaningful vote”. Does she not realise that the MPS have already voted? James Hardy
Marlow, Buckinghamshire
SIR – When Mrs May brings her Withdrawal Agreement back to the Commons for a third time next week, those MPS who remain loyal to the referendum result must not surrender.
Instead, the best strategy would be to retreat and regroup. Force a 21-month delay to our leaving the EU. Ensure that Britain participates in the forthcoming European elections. Replace Mrs May with a prime minister who backs Brexit and will sit down with EU negotiators and senior politicians to thrash out a comprehensive free trade agreement and future relationship.
We then leave in December 2020.
Mike Wroe Newbury, Berkshire