It is true that Nato has helped keep the peace in Europe, but by fear, and now that Donald Trump is US?president with his ‘America first’ policy, can we rely on Nato in the future?

The European Union, on the other hand, has sought to make the 27 countries aware of their common interests and, indeed, was awarded a Nobel prize for peace in 2012 and commended for ‘being instrumental in transforming most of Europe from a continent of war to a continent of peace.’ I repeat, we need to be part of Europe.

And now think of what the prospect of Brexit has already been a 27 per cent chop in the value of the pound, with consequent higher prices for food, materials, imported goods.

Farmers, business leaders, manufacturers and the health service are complaining they will no longer have access to foreign workers, which they need because we do not yet produce enough home-grown scientists, engineers, doctors, nurses etc.

We have already lost a medical and a banking facility and we are now going to pay £30bn to try to regain the tariff advantages which we have so stupidly thrown away.

Did the Brexiters have any idea of the complexities of leaving? Did they have a plan? Any plan?

No, just a wild-eyed vision of a version of Singapore on the western shores of Europe – a banker’s paradise and a low- status, low-wage economy for the rest of us.

Joy Denbigh

Embankment Road

Kingsbridge