Anonymity is granted only at the discretion of the editor, who also reserves the right to edit letters.

Hopes of alliance

Across the country the greatest results for the Liberals since the days of Lloyd George. In the South West, Caroline Voaden and Martin Horwood elected as our MEPs, and Wiltshire with the fourth highest voter turnout at 44 per cent. Together with the Greens and Change UK, our collective votes outnumbered the votes for the Brexit Parties, and there is hope we can form an alliance for the future.

The Conservatives and Labour knocked into a cocked hat with neither of their official positions taken seriously by the public, and even Douglas Alexander the former Labour Cabinet Minister saying that “Labour’s position of a Jobs First Brexit is a bit like a buildings first earthquake.”

The current Reith lecturer, Supreme Court Judge Jonathan Sumption also commenting that the decision by Tory Leader David Cameron to hold a referendum in the first place was deeply flawed.

Perhaps unfairly, Carole Cadwalladr the leader writer for the Observer tweeted of Farage: “The idea that the Brexit Party is a new party is a total fiction. It’s just the latest host body for Farage - the tapeworm of British politics.” The Brexit Party certainly got the largest number of votes for a single party, and congratulations to them for that achievement, but with no policies other than a no deal Brexit one has to wonder where they go next, especially given some of their MEP’s deeply unpleasant personal views.

The best quote of the week must however go to former President Barack Obama who, when delivering the commencement address at Rutgers University, said of the current strain of anti-intellectualism: “In politics and in life, ignorance is not a virtue. It’s not cool to not know what you’re talking about. That’s not keeping it real or telling it like it is. It’s not challenging political correctness… that’s just not knowing what you’re talking about.”

We need a return to well thought through, decent and fair policies from politicians.

Dr Brian Mathew, Liberal Democrat Prospective MP for North Wiltshire

UK must be sovereign

Bill Williams hit the nail on the head. Parliament is not fit for purpose, not just the Government.

I think that anyone who voted to leave the EU in the referendum should ignore all of the main parties, regardless of their promises, at the next General Election, they can’t be trusted! Who could possibly believe the Lib Dems. after signing a pledge not to increase tuition fees, then trebling them. The Greens will price us out of existence making us scared to put on a light or heating. The only party that will deliver the referendum result is the Brexit Party.

If all 17.4 million leavers vote for Nigel Farage Brexit Party will win the election, it would break the strangle hold of the two- party system, thereby clearing out a raft of MPs that don’t believe that British citizens should have a say over the direction the UK must go to gain independence from the EU dictators.

We actually require a change in the Constitution to make future referendums legally binding on the government, and we should have more of them over issues of National importance, i.e when the MPs wish to start wars to effect regime change on a foreign country if they offer no direct threat to the UK. The people of the UK must be sovereign, and Parliament must reflect this.

Last but not least, Nigel would take the UK out of the EU, possibly with a deal that doesn’t contravene our red lines. The Irish would keep their red line of no hard border between North and South. The borders would have to be beefed up on mainland Britain to prevent illegal immigration across the Irish Sea.

Alan Spencer, Swindon