Parliament passed sovereignty to the people when calling the EU Referendum and the majority of people voted leave, just to leave, not to have a deal. In no elections or referendums are those not bothering to vote counted in the result, but their rights have not been traduced. Due to a lack of planning by Cameron’s Tory government the triggering of Article 50 was delayed but supported by both Tories and Labour, who then further promised in a General Election to deliver the result, just as Cameron had promised at the outset.

Parliament, made up mainly of Remainers, has attempted to thwart the result but has ended up in chaos with no end in sight. Parliament should move swiftly to leave on WTO terms if it does not wish to destroy democracy.

Stopping wars may have been an admirable aim of the EU and its predecessors but real democracies do not wage war against each other and it is NATO that has kept the peace.

A major reason to leave the EU is to sign our own trade deals rather than be bound by the EU, but we cannot do this while we are full members, or if we remain in the customs union and single market. Many of the existing deals are being or may be rolled over until we make new ones. It is intended that we will take advantage to reduce tariffs to zero where possible under a WTO deal.

If we stay in the EU we may be a so called equal partner but in reality with less than 10 per cent of the votes in the parliament we are at the mercy of others.

Michael McGough

Wellfields, Loughton