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A third referendum

I CAN’T say how much I agree with our MEP Molly Scott Cato that we need another referendum to vote on the outcome of the Brexit negotiations. Nobody before the referendum proposed a “hard Brexit”, in fact we were told we had a plethora of models – Norwegian, Swiss etc etc. I haven’t trawled through the old letters to show examples but I will if necessary.

No doubt the usual suspects will call her and me undemocratic, but Molly, I and the Green Party as a whole called for a referendum on our membership. I did many times on these pages and now feel we need another to ratify agreement, or not. Baroness Jenny Jones, a prominent Green who voted for Brexit, told me that she wanted a vote on the outcome.

Do we elect a government and then forbid parliament to vote against it? No. Do we not have another election after five years? Yes.

Doesn’t Parliament vote on principle for a bill at the first reading and then vote on the details? This is democracy in action. There will be some no doubt who say calling for a third referendum (for we have had two) is treason, as they do on social media, but this is nonsense and they are headbangers and trolls with no knowledge of the law.

STEVE THOMPSON, Norman Road, Swindon

Child poverty figures

T REYNOLDS (TR) asks for the source of figures I quoted on child poverty. It was the Office of National Statistics. On release the figures were widely reported in the press. Poverty figures across the board have gone up since the Tories were elected because of policies supported by TR.

I am surprised that he missed these figures. There are plenty of other sources; charity Buttle UK for instance who point to an increase of 1.1 million in “in work” poverty since 2010.

TR returns to his complaint about an anti Tory cartoon displayed outside their conference. I’ll repeat; it seems to me perverse to feign distress at a cartoon while supporting the very real life harm done to millions of ordinary people, all in the name of delivering ever larger amounts of wealth to a tiny but very rich minority of the population. That TR answers my point on the removal of building safety regulations with a revolting comment on Grenfell tower victims being illegal immigrants underlines this point.

At least TR doesn’t try to claim any high ground when defending his passivity around the invasion of Iraq. The massive 2003 protest against that invasion and the movement around it didn’t stop the war but did shine a light on the lies and did make it harder for subsequent governments to drag us into such wars.

PETER SMITH, Woodside Avenue, Swindon

Thanks to hospital

ON Wednesday I had a nasty fall that resulted in a cut lip, and even greater damage to my chin. My husband took me to A&E at 2.45pm. Within 20 minutes I was assessed and 45 minutes later seen by a doctor. I spent two nights in the GWH. I would like to thank the staff who cared for me so efficiently. These dedicated people in the A&E department were working under tremendous pressure at the time, and still had the patience to treat me efficiently. Thank you very much.

JEAN BARNHAM, Trajan Road, Swindon