Politicians have put their parties before their country

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Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn speaking at a Momentum event at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in central London. (PA)

Enough! We’ve had enough of all of these putative Alpha males strutting their stuff in pursuit of their own naked ambition. They have put party before country and their own lust for power before everything. The damage they have wrought through their lies, prevarications and spin is incalculable. From their devastation of the economy to the deep divisions within communities, neighbourhoods and even families that their hate talk has contributed to.

The country they all want to call “great” has been shamed and made a laughing stock. The backstabbing and betrayal we now see is nothing compared with the betrayal of the electorate and the country.

It is unforgivable. And it is time for them to all stand aside. Yes, even you, Jeremy. You are by all accounts a principled and nice man, but your obstinacy only deepens and perpetuates this crisis. It is time for the men to stand aside and the women to step up to the mark: women such as Hillary Clinton and Elizabeth Warren, who deflated the pompous dangerous ego of Donald Trump in the US; Angela Merkel, the stateswoman of Europe and almost the only conciliatory voice in the mayhem of calls for retribution that cascaded out of Europe; and Theresa May, Angela Eagle, Nicola Sturgeon and Natalie Bennett in Britain. They won’t be perfect and they will have a hard time of it. But nothing could be worse than this present bunch – except more of the same.

Veronica Grant
Llanidloes

We should scrap Parliament and look to the Monarchy for guidance

Since everything is in such a mess, should we not consider scrapping Parliament and getting Prince Charles to take over?

AD Maunder
Reading

All of that campaigning for nothing

So now the dust has settled a little on Brexit, what is the real outcome? It looks like we are not going to be better off than we were, and the best we can hope for is to be no worse off. If we wish to continue as a trading nation, then we have to negotiate some form of deal with the EU, which means still paying them money and accepting their rules, which we no longer have a say in, including the right to the freedom of movement – in other words, we’ve just gone through an expensive, traumatic, political-party-busting procedure – for absolutely nothing.

John Hudson
Derby

Gove is not dissimilar from a comic book character

Gove: the Mekon returns.

Anthony Rodriguez
Staines

When will you admit that you were wrong, David?

Maybe the best thing that David Cameron could do now to clean up this mess is to admit publicly that: 10 weeks for an active campaign was too short; woefully insufficient information was provided to the electorate; and too many major lies were told for the referendum result to have any credible meaning.

If the Leave campaign had no exit plan, they didn’t know what they were actually asking the voters to vote for. One week later, the 51.9 per cent of people that voted Leave still have no clear idea of what exactly they have voted for. This is not democracy at work. It is just the biggest most public mistake ever pulled off by a country.

It takes a big guy to admit such a big mistake, and the world is watching. However, it’s exactly what is needed and what the world wants to hear and the time to do it is now ... please.

Gill Davenport
Harrogate

We need to see people beyond society’s labels

The present discourse in our country is not a statement of politics but of prejudice. People are packaged and dismissed as Asian, banker, immigrant, Jew, middle class, elite, Muslim, metropolitan, black or Polish, or given no designation but simply labelled "trash". These diverse groups in our society are deemed in turn not fit to either inhabit our communities or to govern them.

The logical conclusion to this line of thought is that there is a “wrong” and a “right” type of person or public representative. Assessing the contribution of an individual on the basis of their race or background is as meaningless as criticising at an apple for being round, red and bearing a short brown stalk.

Background and race do not determine moral judgment or integrity. These qualities exist across peoples and should be the measure against which societal conduct, performance and public service are gauged. The EU referendum has shown that now more than ever that right and wrong pertain only to the moral continuum and that they are what they have always been: scruples and integrity versus lying and cheating.

Let us resolve to elevate our debate and not critise on the basis of that which we did not choose and cannot change. Let us put our words and actions only, to proof.

Ann-Frances Luther
Frant

Consumer rights dictate that we should have a second referendum

Surely there is a case for a new referendum to be held on the basis of when you buy shoddy goods you get a period of grace to return them?

The Leavers are in that situation: they voted for a series of offers which were either withdrawn, diluted or said to have never been promised. Why should they not have an opportunity to vote on the actual situation? Surely this is fair and democratic too?

If the vote is the same then that’s fine – but the way it is, with an almost equal number of people choosing to remain, this would surely bring the country into a happier place. It would also force those who championed Leave to come back and show their empty hands, instead of creeping off into the undergrowth or pretending the result merits their becoming PM.

It would also be the perfect opportunity for Labour to champion a new vote – on the basis of fairness and given that nearly two-thirds of Labour voters voted for Remain.

Mora McIntyre
Hove