I was inspired by Ed Vulliamy’s eulogy of Europeanness (For me, being European is about who and what we are: a way of being, sans frontières, Travel, 8 February). Some of his experiences resonated with mine: I too spent a lot of youthful time travelling around the continent in the 1960s and 70s, and still do whenever I can.

Like Ed, I revel in the shift of tastes, sights, smells and languages, as you move from place to place, while recognising a commonality of experiences too. Like him (though not perhaps as well as him), I’ve tried to learn enough of the local language to engage with the people I find myself among. And, like him, I feel – culturally and politically – very “European”.

But why his despairing ending, concluding that he’s no longer part of this? The UK has simply left one particular European political (and business) institution; it remains a member of other international organisations within Europe, such as the OSCE and the Council of Europe. British cultural, sporting, scientific, broadcasting, political and other bodies continue as part of their own European networks. Ed and I continue to have our friendships with people around the continent.

For as long as I can remember, most of the personal and institutional links between Britain and other European countries that really matter have existed irrespective of either country’s membership, or not, of the EU (and where EU membership has been relevant, it’s sometimes been inimical to those connections), and there’s no reason for that to change.

If “being European” really does become more difficult for British people after Brexit, it’ll be because of centralising, power-grabbing and vindictive tendencies within the EU structure, not because there’s any logical reason why it need be so.

Albert Beale

King’s Cross, London

• George Monbiot (‘Try to stop me.’ How our leaders are now ruling with impunity, Journal, 5 February) asserts that it was “the Brexit vote that eventually enabled Boris Johnson to take office”. Nothing could be further from the truth. What put Johnson into No 10 was a coalition of anti-Brexit MPs inside the Labour party (some 200 of them led by Keir Starmer), and Lib Dem MPs teaming up with the Tory party’s European Research Group. Together they trashed Theresa May’s deal on three occasions. It was the weirdest of alliances.

The remainer Labour and Lib Dem MPs did it in the hope they could scupper Brexit for good; the ERG did it in the hope that Brexit would come about with a no deal. The EU had agreed the May deal, it would have kept us close to the EU, and if it had been carried, Mrs May, not Boris Johnson, would be prime minister still. That is the indisputable fact of the matter. But defeated three times by parliament, Mrs May had to resign. Her resignation necessitated the election of a new Tory leader and that put Johnson into No 10.

And if having Johnson as PM isn’t bad enough, there is now the possibility that the ultimate outcome will be a no deal. As it stands, the ERG are in the driving seat while both Labour and the Lib Dems have been trashed by their own dreadful miscalculations and tactics and their refusal to accept the democratic decision of the people. Johnson and Dominic Cummings just cannot believe their luck.

Michael Knowles

Congleton, Cheshire

• Dr William Dixon (Letters, 12 February) argues that “the Tory party has its share of ideologues; but, whatever they may think, they do not call the shots”. Brexit suggests otherwise.

Derrick Cameron

Stoke-on-Trent

• Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com

• Read more Guardian letters – click here to visit gu.com/letters

• Do you have a photo you’d like to share with Guardian readers? Click here to upload it and we’ll publish the best submissions in the letters spread of our print edition