“BREXIT means Brexit” – but nobody will know exactly what it means until negotiations are completed in 2019, and even after that there will be surprises.

We know that Remain voters were for the status quo and against a leap in the dark, but only an extensive programme of research could tell us what Leave voters had in mind. For some it was probably just a general protest vote. Others were protesting specifically against unequal austerity, against domination by a public school minority, against a misunderstood Brussels bureaucracy.

Many appear to have been driven by a general dislike of foreigners or even apparently by a wild fear of Islam, of Turkey’s supposed entry into the EU or even of the imposition of Sharia Law. As to what a Leave was for, if it was independence in an inter-dependent world there will be disappointment.

If it was for quaint old measurements like rods, poles or perches, their advocates can dream on. For this confusion of wishes, the whole of Britain will pay the price, unless Parliament exerts the sovereignty that is the basis of our constitution and says ‘No’.

P J STEWART
Berkeley Road
Boars Hill