HOW heartening it was to read Ed Treadwell’s letter in your paper (Letters, September 28 — ‘If a vote comes’).

A man I have never to my knowledge ever met or spoken to. Then how predictable to read the letter from Paul Goddard (Letters, September 28 — ‘Back to the polls’) — a mixture of ‘same old, same old’, ‘any ploy will do to win’ (akin to cheating in sport if you can get away with it without the ref seeing) and an incredible belief in the infallibility and supremacy of the EU over our own government (“I would rather keep the higher standards guaranteed by the EU”).

He returns to the theme of all Leavers are liars and they told us everything in the garden was going to be lovely, etc. He refers to claims by Leavers of the UK ‘holding all the cards’ but, even if we had, it still takes a skilful player to win the game and so far the government have been woefully incompetent at that.

His final shot at negating the will of the people is to have another referendum and include all 16 and 17-year-olds — all those idealistic young people with no experience of adult life, no adult responsibilities, who’ve never paid any taxes and who have been led to believe that there is no hope in life without embroilment in the grand project which is the EU. Like the Scottish Nationalists who thought that including them would win their independence referendum (and on that subject, if the Scots really do want independence then let them have it — it will happen sooner or later since, like the EU, the Scottish Nationalists will go on asking the question until they get the answer they want — and then they’ll stop).

Like Harold Wilson before them, who reduced the voting age to 18 in the hope that that same idealism would guarantee the Labour party everlasting victory at general elections. Neither worked but let’s not stop trying to invoke any ploy to cheat our way to winning, eh Paul Goddard?

Those 16 and 17-year-olds would be far better served by widening their horizons to the world outside of the EU (but including Europe).

There is more to their future than being led to believe that there is no hope outside of the political monolith; that the world will come to an end if they have to get a visa to visit those European countries inside the EU. While many try to wipe history from our memories there is a whole wide world that we have explored before and is just waiting for those wondering young people to find for themselves.

I wonder if in Paul Goddard’s brave new world parents of the future will not be allowed to bring up their own children since they will bring them up according to the values and beliefs they hold. The state will surely know better.

What a thought!

Stanley Oram, Bulbery, Abbotts Ann