I have rarely read such self-serving rubbish as contained in the article on civil disobedience in the event of a further Brexit referendum. Barry Gardiner suggests that a second referendum would undermine the whole principle of democracy in this country. What absolute tosh! The fundamental principle of democracy is that people are free to change their mind. Otherwise, Gardiner’s next argument would be that a duly elected government could never be voted out.

When voters are lied to and misled in such a shameless way as we witnessed in the whole Brexit debate, I submit that the essence of democracy is that when the true facts emerge, then people should have the right to vote again.

The absolute certainty is that had Brexit failed in 2016, these same politicians who now argue against a second referendum would be the first to say that democracy demanded that they be able to have another and another and another attempt.

Their hypocrisy is breathtaking!

Simon Carrel

Maidenhead

Priti Patel on trade deals

It was astonishing to see Priti Patel once again perpetuating pro-Brexit hyperbole on GMTV. She says the UK will be able to “set its own rules” when it comes to future trade with other countries. Is she seriously suggesting that the UK can dictate the terms of a trade deal with countries the size of India, China, the US or Brazil? This is the equivalent of telling an individual apple farmer that they can tell Tesco or Lidl what prices they will be charged and what standards their produce will adhere to.

Chris Key

Address supplied

Brexit will affect au pairs and working parents just as much as carers for the vulnerable

Referring to the report by Alex Matthews-King “Brexit social care crisis”, please be aware that it’s not only the number of carers for the vulnerable that will be seriously depleted. Au pairs, who traditionally come to the UK from mainland Europe for a linguistic and cultural experience, live with host families, and help out with childcare before and after school. This enables parents to work. So those parents’ jobs are now vulnerable because the number of candidates who want to come to the UK from mainland Europe has dropped by an average 75 per cent this year.

Au pairs usually follow an English language course during their year-long stay here, so those language schools will feel a big drop in the number of students during the next school year.

Au pairs have been coming from mainland Europe to the UK for over 120 years and we are pleading with government to reassure us that this opportunity for young people will continue, but they refuse to respond.

Maggie Dyer, PR for The British Au Pair Agencies’ Association

London, NW2

Third-party sales of animals

Banning the sale of puppies and kittens at pet shops is a welcome move – as restrictions on heartless breeders are urgently needed.

Many of the young animals for sale in pet shops or via online adverts come from puppy mills, where female dogs are kept almost constantly pregnant.

They spend their lives in cages, denied socialisation, exercise, and veterinary care. When their bodies are spent and they can no longer reproduce, they’re often killed. The puppies born in these facilities commonly suffer from diseases because of poor conditions and inadequate care.

But while this new legislation may combat some of the worst forms of abuse on puppy factory farms, it’s worth remembering that it’s irresponsible and cruel for any breeder to continue churning out more puppies or kittens for profit while thousands of lovable and highly adoptable dogs and cats are euthanised in the UK every year for lack of good homes. People who are willing to commit to taking care of an animal properly should shun breeders altogether and save a life by adopting from their local animal shelter.

Jennifer White, Peta

London N1

As the country goes to hell in a handcart, Michael Gove has his finger on the pulse, his nose to the grindstone, his shoulder to the wheel, a bird in the hand – whatever…

So, years after Margaret Thatcher did away with very sensible dog licensing laws (along with any number of other sensible regulations) Tory environment minister Gove, in the midst of the biggest national and international British mess of modern times, extravagantly tackles the heady, difficult and pressing issue of pet shops and pet breeders selling – well – pets.

Have the Tories taken a leaf out of Trump’s play book – loudly “fixing” problems of their own making?

Amanda Baker

Edinburgh

Though I appreciate the new dog breeding regulations, who will monitor and police it? Proving that £1,000 has exchanged hands, or that three or more litters in a year have taken place, is easily avoided. Pedigree dog litters from professional breeders are not the real problem, but backstreet dog breeders are. And what of the huge number of dogs coming in from abroad, such as Ireland and the continent? These two more spurious sources of puppies will take over from the more respectable source. Why is there so little intelligence?

Name and address supplied

It’s time for the Pope to lift the veil of secrecy

Following the revelations of the appalling abuse of children by Catholic priests in Pennsylvania, the spotlight is now on the Vatican and Pope Francis. The Pope has a cloudy past and new questions are being asked on what role he and the Catholic church played in the “Dirty War” in his native Argentina from 1976-1983, when the US-backed junta claimed the lives of tens of thousands of people who were tortured in the most gruesome way imaginable.

After pregnant women gave birth, their babies were sold or given to childless military families. The women were then tortured and killed. One of Francis’s “lieutenants”, Archbishop Juan Carlos Aramburu, openly sided with the military’s purge, in which freethinking priests and nuns were also killed. Some priests were directly involved in the repression, with military chaplains blessing the drugged bodies of suspected guerrillas marked for execution as they were loaded onto military planes, from which they were then hurled to their deaths, unconscious, over the Rio de la Plata.

According to Francisco Goldman of The New Yorker, hundreds of “children of the disappeared” are now in their early thirties, some unaware that their parents are, in effect, their biological parents’ killers. In a religion that claims to be a bastion of ethical and moral purity, it is time to lift the veil of secrecy, reveal the sins of the past, allow the ordination of women and eliminate the archaic, unnatural celibacy laws.