This kind of article annoys the hell out of me (Boats, bankers and borders: five symbols that sum up Brexit a decade on, 20 June). We all know that the leave campaign was built on lies and manipulation. We are yet to see a list of Brexit benefits. Or, indeed, a list of names of the very few who did actually benefit. And none of the mendacious opportunists who drove the leave campaign have ever been held accountable. It is truly outrageous!
Meanwhile, Brexit took a very real toll on the many anglophile Europeans who, like me, entrusted their lives to the postwar utopian ideals and humanist principles embodied by the EU. Shocked that almost no one seemed willing to make a persuasive case for remain, I applied for British citizenship after 25 years in the UK and became British just a few weeks before the referendum. As a result, I was spared the worst of the nightmarish bureaucratic toxicity that was subsequently to consume many of my European friends and colleagues.
Whatever has happened to British common sense? Britain’s future resides within Europe – of course it does. Yet here we are watching this historically most cosmopolitan of European nations lose itself in imperial nostalgia and self-delusion. Until Britain embarks on a genuine process of Brexitbewältigung (ie coming to terms with the causes, consequences and false promises of Brexit), that damage is likely to continue.
Prof Berthold Schoene
Manchester Metropolitan University
• Reading your article in which three writers debate Brexit 10 years on (‘I feel entirely vindicated’: three Guardian columnists debate Brexit and its legacy, 23 June), I was disappointed you did not include Jonathan Freedland, who 10 years ago, in a piece headlined “A warning to Gove and Johnson – we won’t forget what you did”, wrote: “We should hold on to our fury, against those who for the sake of their career or a pet dogma, were prepared to wreck everything.” As your panel says, that view has been vindicated.
At least Boris Johnson got his just deserts, but I am not so sure about Michael Gove. And as for Nigel Farage – well, here’s hoping the Makerfield byelection result will have set back his and his party’s rise.
Ian Arnott
Peterborough
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