John Harris laments that so few of our politicians admit that Brexit has been a disaster, and that until they do so, conspiracies and myths about “betrayal” will become more entrenched (The wreckage of Brexit is all around us. How long can our politicians indulge in denial?, 1 January). I fear that this has already happened. Those politicians who can see the tragedy are too afraid to speak out lest they are also condemned as traitors. The Conservative party has been infiltrated by hard Brexiters, while Labour is slavishly in thrall to its largely pro-Brexit “red wall” voters.
The real problem is that Brexit is an article of faith, based on emotions, feelings and nostalgia for a mythical golden age. Many of its most faithful supporters are impervious to any evidence and facts, and immune to logic or reason. They are contemptuous of experts and thus easily exploited by rightwing populists. Harris quotes an apposite Pink Floyd lyric to encapsulate the disastrous Brexit delusion. May I, in homage to the late Vivienne Westwood, quote an equally apposite Sex Pistols lyric from God Save the Queen: “There is no future in England’s dreaming.”
Pete Dorey
Bath, Somerset
