Notre-Dame

• THE burning of Notre-Dame made me realise how European I have become, from being a small boy looking out of the window at young Luftwaffe pilots in bombers passing over the garden trees, to someone who feels passionately about a Paris church.

No wonder I am in a rage about the lies and deceit of Brexit: how over two and a half years we are fed nonsense about deals/no deals, and backstops; how nothing is resolved, for example, over who will fill the crisis in vacancies for nurses.

Recently in the Royal Free Hospital some wonderfully kind and efficient Portuguese nurses looked after me. Who will pick our strawberries?; are our universities and colleges going to survive without European students?; etc.

David Davis made no impact assessments for Brexit and now, just to find out what is going on, we have to plough through 585 pages, mostly unintelligible to a layman.

How incorrect it is to say that Brexit is the will of the people when only half the people, on misinformation, voted for this disaster over two years ago.

The demography of Britain is rapidly changing. The old are dying and the young, who don’t want Brexit, are eligible for the vote. What does the will of the people mean?

We were all lied to by Boris Johnson and a prime minister who is a master of deceit and determined self-aggrandisement, who is prepared unlawfully to break a peace treaty in Northern Ireland for her foul scheme.

It takes the burning of a beautiful medieval cathedral to bring our strong attachment to Europe into relief.

We should not forget looking at the hordes of young European school children visiting London how they have a great interest in the wonderful heritage of this country and its origins in Roman, Saxon, French, Dutch and German culture; which Brexit is putting in jeopardy.

NICHOLAS WOOD
South Hill Park Gardens, NW3