PARLIAMENT has voted. We are leaving the EU. I get very frustrated when it is stated “The British people have decided”. Well we did not.

The referendum showed that we are a divided nation. Just over half voted to leave and just under half to “remain”. There was no clear consensus.

At work I was tasked with helping groups within the voluntary/ community sector make difficult decisions, and in anything regarding a change in constitution a majority of two thirds of those voting in favour was required for the changes to be implemented.

Something like this should have been in place if the referendum was to give a mandate to the Government to proceed.

But we are where we are and the only way forward now to hold the country together is to achieve a soft Brexit so that the “leave” voters achieve their objective and “remain” voters retain some features of partnership with countries still within the EU.

John Oldershaw Address supplied