Letters: Remainers aren't traitors - we just want a plan for Brexit

SIR - It was amusing to see the Three Stooges on page 2 of last Friday's A&T (MPs back Johnson’s parliament shutdown).

One is used to hearing Sir Desmond shout: “You lost! Get over it!” What one does not expect is hypocrisy. The essence of his argument against Remainers is that they won't accept “the will of the people".

What Sir Desmond appears unable to accept is that given the close result of the referendum and the multiplicity of choices on offer about how the UK may (or may not) leave the EU, it is not surprising that parliament cannot come to a settled view.

It is merely reflecting the state of opinion across the country.

Parliament has been asked to give a simple answer to a fiendishly complex question. It is ill-equipped to do so, given that it operates on convention, custom and, above all, good faith. Theresa May lost the government much trust when she tried to sidestep Parliament.

However, the Boris Johnson Prize for Brazen Mendacity goes to Dr Lewis. No, Dr Lewis, Remainers have not refused to accept the result of the referendum. What they have done is ask the obvious question: “How, exactly, do you plan to do this?”

Rather than engage with the question, Leavers, who have no real answer other than to spout simplistic nonsense which broadly boils down to variations on “Let's just walk away, they need us more than we need them”, simply shout “Saboteur! Traitor!” and worse.

In reality, the only game in town is the withdrawal agreement Mrs May signed up to last year. Yes, I have read it. It's the starting point for discussions that, one way or another, will have to be had.

Leaving the EU is a process, not an event, as I've written many times. And it will be a long, arduous, boring trawl through endless detail, dealing with the thousands of relationships that hundreds of different UK bodies have with the rest of the world.

Certificates of Origin, anybody? Do we have an office here, recognised by anybody else, who will draft and approve them?

If the 16.5-million of us who voted Remain had not been abusively dismissed out of hand three years ago but brought on board to help do this in an orderly fashion, the country might not have had such a public falling out.

Have we sorted out Gibraltar yet? That'll be a fun gig for somebody.

Les Mondry-Flesch, Lymington