This week’s hearing in the European parliament on the impact of the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal reinforced the shocking ways in which British democracy has been subverted (Political advertising online to be reformed, says UK data regulator, 4 June). Whistleblower Christopher Wylie said the Cambridge Analytica scandal was the canary in the coalmine of a new cold war emerging online. The information commissioner Elizabeth Denham told MEPs her organisation’s investigation into the use of personal data and analytics by political campaigns was the largest ever undertaken anywhere in the world. Wylie, a leave supporter, believes that Brexit would not be happening were it not for data targeting technology. He concluded the Brexit result was neither fair or legitimate and that if this had happened in Nigeria or Zimbabwe, the EU would demand a rerun of the vote.

A second referendum would be politically unpalatable and, with many key leave campaigners now at the heart of government, impossible. However, given the fraudulent way in which the Brexit vote was secured; the fact the government is preparing to undemocratically rush through 15 Lords amendments to the Brexit bill in a 12-hour session in the Commons next week; and the fact that public opinion on leaving the EU is shifting fast, the case for a “people’s vote” on the Brexit deal is now irrefutable.

Molly Scott Cato MEP

Green, South West England

• George Soros may have his heart in the right place (Soros-backed campaign to push for new Brexit vote within a year, 29 May). However, the idea that he might fund a campaign for a rerun of the Brexit referendum may very well lead to a disaster that the remain campaign should fear.

If the electorate get it into their heads that they are being brought back to the ballot box at the behest of a Hungarian-born billionaire – and that is how it would be presented by the Brexit camp – they are likely to vote for Brexit by a large majority.

Victor Orbán in Hungary was able to use the spectre of Soros to secure a two-thirds majority in parliament. I’m afraid that Soros is a toxic brand for any political project in which he is involved. Stay well clear, remainers, if you want to win an as yet hypothetical referendum.

I am not, in any case, sure that a new referendum is a good idea. Having participated in several referendums in Ireland, and observed a number close up in Switzerland, they are at best a dicey business. The electorate have a tendency to vote on other issues, not relevant to the question in the referendum at all.

Robin Henry

Meckenheim, Germany

• As an Irish citizen I couldn’t believe Fintan O’Toole’s article (If only Brexit had been run like Ireland’s referendum, 30 May). Every day here in Ireland we listen to, and read Irish journalists trot out the line the British voters did not know what they were voting for and that a second referendum should be held. Why? British voters have democratically decided to leave the EU and that decision should be respected. In 2008 the Irish people rejected the Lisbon treaty in a referendum here in Ireland. Because the Irish government and certain journalists at the time did not accept the result, the referendum was rerun in 2009 so the correct result was returned.

In between those two referendums, threats from the EU on job losses, financial ruin and trade restrictions were commonplace. Very few Irish journalists defended Irish voters because of the way they were treated by the Irish government and the EU when they rejected Lisbon. O’Toole should respect the decision that British voters made when they voted to leave the EU. Bravo to British voters for the democratic decision that you have taken and resist any attempt to rerun the referendum on Brexit.

John Walsh

Celbridge, Co Kildare

• Why is the Labour whip’s office complaining that there will only be 12 hours to debate the EU withdrawal bill? As long as they keep telling Labour MPs to vote with the government or sit on their hands instead of acting like an opposition, there’s not much point in any debate at all, is there?

Chris Webster

Norwich

• Reading your article on George Soros reminds me of the old saying: the advice of the wealthy is like the winter sun, it illuminates but it seldom warms.

Ian Garner

Keighley, West Yorkshire

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