Sir, – Denis Staunton is dismissive of David Cameron's legacy ("Cameron hurries out of Number 10 leaving a country divided", Analysis, July 13th).
Though the country may be divided on the question of Europe, it was a division that Mr Cameron inherited and a division he would have preferred not to have had to deal with. To say that “he left the country bitterly divided after a referendum he didn’t have to call” is to ignore the degree of distrust and dislike of the the EU held by many people in the UK. If Britain had a system of proportional representation, Ukip at the last general election would have won over 80 seats in Westminster. In the “first past the post” system, it held just one seat.
How can we decry the disengagement of people with the political process if, when they do engage with issues, they are rewarded with nothing more nourishing than the platitudinous insipidity of a political class which imagines that it know best?
Scotland’s huge vote for the SNP could not be ignored and it was granted a once-in-a-generation opportunity to have an open debate and to vote on its future. Likewise the millions of people who voted Ukip were also given their chance to debate and indeed to choose to change the course of their country’s future. It was not the result that David Cameron wanted, and had there been any Labour leader other than the inept and lukewarm Jeremy Corbyn, then it is likely that the UK would have voted narrowly to remain.
To leave the EU was perhaps a regrettable decision, but democracy is not a series of hoops designed to thwart the will of the people.
If the people consistently vote for a change in their governance then that wish, if it is long-standing and sincere, should be placed before the people in a referendum.
Some of your readers may regret that Mr Cameron won the Scottish referendum and more that he lost the EU referendum, but what we can all do is acknowledge his courage in calling them and for fighting passionately in both for his vision for the future of the UK.
Mr Cameron, despite leaving office sooner than he would have desired, has left the countries finances in a rather better state than he found them in 2010.
He has also during a difficult period of austerity, successfully taken the “nasty” sting out of the Tory brand. The Conservatives are now winning seats in the north of England and Wales and have displaced Labour to become the party of opposition in Scotland. And he leaves the country in the capable hands of his chosen successor, Theresa May.
When compared to the Blair and Brown years, his will be remembered as a sane, hardworking and successful premiership. – Yours, etc,
KEVIN RYAN
Richmond, London.
Sir, – He’d talk the hind legs off a donkey. I’ll give him that much. – Yours, etc,
MARK RYAN,
Dublin 8.