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Almost two years on from the Brexit vote, we need to all pull together and get the best deal for our country.

Whether you voted for Brexit or whether you voted to stay in Europe, it’s really pretty much irrelevant now.

You have a referendum and unless you respect that, then there’s no point in having one at all.

If people don’t respect the result and respect people’s different views, which everyone is entitled to, then you may as well say we can never have a referendum ever again.

Back in 1963, the small village of Llangendeyrn in the Gwendraeth Valley, west Wales, was going to be drowned to make a reservoir.

The people of the village rallied together; everyone in that village stuck together in unison and fought against it.

All the farmers locked their gates, blocked all the field access with tractors and all the people in the village came out, they blocked the roads and everyone pulled together in order to prevent the village being drowned.

By sticking together, they won the day; they won the battle. The village was not drowned.

And in that village square today there is a stone and on it, it says in Welsh: “Mewn Undod Mae Nerth” – “In Unison There Is Strength”.

And that is what I now think everyone should be doing. Whether you disagree with the result or not, everyone should be working together in unison in getting the best deal for us as a country and going forward making it work for us.

If we go to the negotiations together and stronger, then we will get what we all want, which is a better deal and a better future for us all as a nation united in an even more troubled world.

Whether you want to be in or out, what we all want is what’s best for us, and you’re not going to do that by undermining the process.

The second point for me is if anyone in any of those debates – particularly people on the politics side of it – have misled the public about things in order to get the vote through in whatever way they were campaigning for, then they should be held accountable.

If it’s proven they have misled the public, if they cannot be trusted to tell the truth to the public, they should not be holding a place in government.

(Image: Matt Cardy/Getty Images)

And I’m not saying here that I believe that people have been misleading or not, but that’s the perception that many people have.

It doesn’t really matter if it’s a hard Brexit, a soft Brexit, a medium Brexit – the point of the matter is that people have voted out.

One just wonders whether the individuals or groups who are undermining the process and trying to get a second referendum are doing so in order for their own gain and not for the good of us all or because they disagree with the vote.

To me that is wrong, the vote has been done. The people who voted are not stupid – in or out, they all had their opinions and reasons for the way they voted.

We should all be working together in order to get what’s best for us, because at the moment if you’re going to have people undermining the process they are putting us as a country in a weaker position to negotiate the best deal.

I would rather it take a little longer in getting the best outcome for us, but I think the process has taken longer because people are still trying to undermine it.

If you are not going to respect that process, then you can forget talking about democracy ever again.

Does it really matter if it takes a little longer to get that process right and get what’s best for us? It seems to be taking a couple of years longer because people are trying to undermine that process; if people stopped that, then it would not be taking so long, would it?

We need to have confidence and faith in us as a country as a whole, in that we are able to stand on our feet, get our young people into good jobs here at home, make things that are made here in our own country.

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I think a lot of people voted out in this referendum because of the issues with immigration.

Most people you speak to, their main concern was the immigration. I’d like to make it quite clear myself that I think immigration is good for this country, I am all for immigration.

But it has to be at a controlled rate so that the people come into the country for the right reasons and can be integrated into our society, and they respect us as a country and respect our values, our laws and our communities.

I believe the last three (since 1997, that is) governments have not addressed the concerns of the majority of people, who will tell you that they agree with immigration but it has to be at a controllable rate because we cannot carry on the way we are.

I was listening to both sides of the argument to make a decision on how to vote, as I honestly didn’t know what was best for us as a country. I needed the information so I could make my mind up.

It’s like my personality as a referee – when you are on that field you are always looking at two sides and when I have to make up my mind about something, I always listen to both sides of the argument first.

So, not having any real strong pull either way, I could see the benefits of staying in and I could also see the reasoning and benefits of getting out.

I didn’t vote, I am ashamed to say. What happened was I got appointed as the referee to the European final, then I got appointed to do the Pro-14 final, and straight from Edinburgh after the final, then to a referee’s camp for five days in Cape Town before flying out to Fiji and then on to Australia, so I was away for about five or six weeks.

By the time I realised I needed to get the postal vote sorted before the deadline, I was too late and it arrived at home after I had flown to Edinburgh.

It would be sort of easy for me to look back now and say which way I would have voted.

But I honestly don’t know.

Hindsight is such a wonderful thing and, believe me, as a referee, I know that too well.