The EU complains that the UK doesn’t know what it wants. Now we can tell them – a second referendum

In our journey into this country’s future we plod on inch by inch. Parliament has rejected Theresa May’s deal and if no deal is taken off the table, the road towards Brexit will in effect have reached a dead end.

With it, the fog will clear for those MPs who argue that they have to honour their constituencies’ EU referendum votes and/or their party manifestos.

In short, Brexit will be no more, and the road ahead will finally be free.

In the words of Lord Mandelson in an interview on Channel 4 News, “The public kickstarted Brexit with the referendum result, the public has to decide again.”

The time has come for the public to be given a voice once more in a second referendum and those who wish to attempt Brexit again may vote accordingly.

The EU has always complained that it does not know what the UK wants. With a concrete and positive decision for a second referendum we can then approach the EU for an extension to Article 50 as it will then know what we intend to do with the extended time.

This step forward is so evident to members of the public like me, but appears not to be so for many who represent us in parliament.

Rosa Wei-Ling Chang
Sheffield

Paper bag dilemma

Will this country finally find a prime minister, that can (and will) find a way out of a paper bag known as Brexit? At this point, the only way to do that is by the no-deal method.

Fred Nicholson
Address supplied

Brexit is broken

Brexit is a car unwisely bought from a dodgy dealer. As soon as we drove it down the road the wheels fell off. We want our money back.

Richard Greenwood
Bewdley

Theresa May told the House of Commons that she “continues to believe that by far the best outcome is that the UK leaves the EU in an orderly fashion with a deal”. However, the Commons has now comprehensively voted down her deal.

In September 2018 she announced, with much bravado, that “no deal is better than a bad deal”. So, now that her deal has been rejected by a mile, where exactly does she stand?

Presumably she is, in fact, happy for us to crash out of Europe despite what she told the Commons. Has she thought this through? (I hesitate to ask, given her current vulnerability, what plans she has for the “just about managing”.)

Beryl Wall
London

We’ve all been misled by parliament, the MPs, and all parties collectively. A ridiculous referendum – sanctioned by them – resulted in a 48-52 split and three years of strife. Referendum rules should have ensured a 10 per cent lead for the “winner”.

The average English golf club would not change its constitution on a 48-52 split, as Robert Harris rightly pointed out. And that’s just a golf club.

Now, the people must be consulted again. Their sovereignty must be properly respected. This time with a clearly thought out referendum. Preferably in two parts so that the last referendum can be properly overruled. Currently, the polls show a great change. The split is now 56 per cent Remain and 44 per cent – maybe less – for Leave.

Patrick Glass
St Leonards-on-Sea

Affordable homes on the horizon

The £3bn allocated to the affordable homes guarantees programme in the spring statement will enable affordable housing providers to boost their output by reducing their cost of borrowing.

The funding is welcome, because the government must look to a diverse range of housing providers if its ambitious target of building more than 300,000 homes every year is to be met.

This means looking not just to the volume housebuilders, who provide a significant amount of the country’s housing supply already, but also to affordable housing providers and developers of alternative tenures, such as build to rent, student housing and senior living.

Patrick Gower
London