Madam,

The letter from Dr. Naylor (Cambrian News, 7 July) contains some rather muddled thinking.

He confuses sovereignty with democracy and seems to think that sovereignty is the right to over-ride democratic decisions or re-run them till they produce what he regards as the “right” answer. Sovereignty is the right to make and enforce our own laws. Democracy is the right, by way of referendums and elections, to tell the sovereign government what laws we want and to change the government if we don’t like what they are doing. It works by asking the people for their views and then implementing the majority view. That inevitably means a lot of people don’t get their way, but more get their way than don’t.

In the UK, because we are democratic, we get the opportunity to elect a new government every five years. In the EU the electorate never gets the opportunity to elect or dismiss the European Commission, which makes the laws. This is the first time in over 40 years that we have been able to express a view on EU membership and then only because the UK government granted a referendum. The EU would never have given us that opportunity because they don’t do democracy. Fortunately the electorate took this rare opportunity to regain our independence and control over our own affairs. Dr Naylor’s proposed additional referendum on the “exit deal” would merely approve or reject the proposed exit terms. It would not re-open the question of whether we leave the EU, which has already been democratically decided.

It is a fact that we pay more to the EU than we get back. Consequently when we leave, we can still provide all the grants and fund all the projects to which Dr Naylor refers which are currently funded from our EU contributions and will have cash left over to spend on the NHS or on whatever else we choose. According to the Office of National Statistics that amounts to £170 million a week. What’s the problem - is £170 million a week more than we had before not enough?

Dr Naylor would presumably have been content with a 52:48 vote in favour of remaining in the EU or would he be calling for a re-run because the margin was too small ? I think not. He should have the good grace to accept the view of the majority, give us a chance to see if we can do better now that he and the other Europhiles have had their way for more than 40 years, and let us get on with it instead of going over all the old arguments which have already been lost. He should have faith in the United Kingdom’s ability to run it’s own affairs again as it did perfectly well before there was an EU.

Yours etc

Alan MacMaster

Barmouth