Madam,

It is a source of great pride to me that the people of Gwynedd voted overwhelmingly to remain as members of the EU.

Rather than turn their backs on friends and neighbours in Europe and believe the empty rhetoric and promises of the Leave campaign, the people of my county made a statement to the rest of the UK; that they are a welcoming, outward-looking people who see their place in the world as part of the global family of nations working together in a spirit of co-operation to deal with the many issues we face as a ‘Nation’.

It is a matter of incredulity that others in Wales who have benefitted substantially from membership of the EU, both financially and indirectly through the contribution made to our communities and society by EU nationals who have come to work and reside here, have felt it appropriate to ‘bite the hand’ and to reject continued membership.

As a former lawyer, I recognise the fact that a referendum result has no status in the UK constitution and therefore no binding effect on parliament which remains supreme.

Given the chaos in markets and communities which has already been caused by the vote on Thursday I would actively assert that it is clearly not in the best interests of the people of Gwynedd or the UK as a whole for Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty to be invoked.

I would call upon everyone who values their community and holds dear the ideal of living in a tolerant, outward-looking country to call for a full debate in parliament on the giving of notice pursuant to Ar-ticle 50 of the Lisbon Treaty.

And I urge your readers to impel your MP, Liz Saville-Roberts, to vote against any motion to invoke Article 50 as aforesaid.

I am a democrat, but it is not democratic for the will of 52 per cent of the population to override the expressed wishes of 48 per cent.

It is for this reason that we live in a ‘representative democracy’ where checks and balances exist, including two houses of parliament and the courts, to ensure the voice of the ‘minority’ is heard and represented and any group with a slender majority on any question cannot simply ride roughshod over the rest.

Unlike referenda, life is not a simple case of ‘black and white’ and we ignore this at our peril.

Yours etc,

Phil Griffiths,

Arthog Terrace,

Arthog.