SINCE your columnist Harry Mead claims that Brexit is all about democracy (Echo, Oct 18), perhaps I could point out the following events which are a direct consequence of the referendum result.

David Cameron resigned and packed our bloated, unelected House of Lords with yet more of his cronies; our judges were called “enemies of the people”; Nigel Farage – never elected to the House of Commons – went off to the US to help in the election of Donald Trump, a man who seems to have a very hazy idea of democracy; Remainers were labelled “saboteurs” who had to be “crushed”; Theresa May called an expensive General Election and now clings to power thanks to a sordid bribe to the DUP; and the government has invoked obscure Henry VIII powers designed to prevent proper parliamentary debate.

As for the referendum itself: the Leave campaign achieved its slender majority because of the great big lie that there would be an extra £350m a week for the NHS, and thanks to a small number of incredibly rich and powerful newspaper owners (not necessarily even UK citizens), one or two unscrupulous and self-serving politicians like Boris Johnson, and a few newspaper columnists nostalgic for the Good Old Days which never really existed.

Before the referendum, I gave out Remain leaflets in Durham Market place. One lady said: “To be honest, most of my friends are just going to toss a coin.”

It’s time they had the opportunity to toss a coin again, for the sake of our democracy.

Timothy Cannam, Durham