DESPITE Richard Drax’s and Nigel Farage’s triumphalism, the fact is that the pro-Brexit parties (Brexit and UKIP) got 34 per cent of the vote, and the pro-Remain parties (Lib Dem, Green, Change UK) got 34.9 per cent.

I’m sure there are other ways of looking at it; certainly Brexit was the single largest party, though if you include the SNP, the Remain tendency would seem even stronger.

This, on a 35.6 per cent turnout, is hardly a convincing result either way, and definitely not a “clear message” to parliament to leave.

The latest YouGov poll actually puts the Lib Dems in the lead over all the other parties.

The Brexit situation has hardly shifted at all for the last year.

There are still three basic options: 1. Hard Brexit; 2. Leave with a deal; 3. Cancel Brexit. My view is that they are all bad, its just a question of which is the least bad.

To those who think we should just leave and have an end to it...er, no, there will follow years, years, of rancorous arguments over the future trading arrangements, as well as the short term calamitous damage to our economy. Two - leave with a deal is looking less and less likely. It would be just the start of years of detailed negotiations, albeit from a firmer, if unsatisfactory, basis.

Cancel Brexit and Remain would bring an end to this whole fiasco, but would cause great resentment in those who are still fully committed to leaving under any circumstances, and our future membership as part of the EU may be seriously damaged.

Those of us who support a Peoples’ Vote are not trying to impose one, two or three (above) on anyone. We just believe that now the facts and options are clear, we should have the right to choose, and those who want to change their minds can do so.

If Richard Drax is so confident that the majority are happy to leave without a deal, then why oppose a Peoples’ Vote? I don’t see how more democracy can be considered undemocratic, whereas imposing a hard Brexit on the country, against the will of Parliament, and (unless supported by a Peoples’ Vote) against the will of the population, certainly wouldn’t be democracy.

Mark Gugan

Dorchester