• FORTUNATELY, democracy did not die on June 24, 2016, when we voted to leave the EU, just as it did not die after any of the six general elections held in and since 1997. Voters made their choices and four or five years later made new choices.

Yes, there was a vote to leave but, no, there was no decision on how we should leave. Should we join the European Economic Area? Should we join European Free Trade Association?

Should we strike a deal with Brussels that keeps food and medicines flowing into our country, planes in the sky and EU-citizen nurses and doctors in our hospitals?

Should we break off completely and rely on World Trade Organisation rules? Or should we decide that, having looked at the terms of the deal, we’d rather stay in the EU? There’s only one way to find out.

I admit I voted Remain in 2016 but very nervously. How stupid would I look when £350m was flowing into our austerity-hit NHS every week, and we were striking trade deals with the US, China and Australia?

I need not have worried; they were just overblown claims at best, and lies at worst. Instead we have seen the pound fall, making shop prices and holidays more expensive, banks relocate staff out of the UK and the government plan for households hoarding food.

As the penny has dropped, people have increasingly said they want another vote. There’s nothing wrong with that. That’s democracy.

PHIL THORNTON
Address supplied