I get so tired of constantly hearing the overly loud voices of people like Will Podmore discussing their view of Brexit. (Give us what we voted for, Opinion, January 9) Brexit does not represent independence to me and to many others - it is simply a withdrawal from a union of independent states in northern and eastern Europe. If the EU is democracy-denying then we have to look to ourselves as we have helped to shape it over the past 40 years.

Undeniably the 2016 referendum was for leave by a small margin, but the recent election was not necessarily predicated solely on Brexit; such a thing is not really possible in our constitution. We had an election to choose a government for the next five years; parties had manifestos that did not just contain details of Brexit.

A mature democracy such as ours should have been able to allow for some discussion and compromise since 2016 as to what we wanted to happen next, in relation to the customs union, scientific research, adoption of legal rules and standards etc, especially bearing in mind that two countries within our union, Northern Ireland and Scotland, voted against it.

Also, many people married to EU citizens have been put in very difficult circumstances and it is callous not to consider their points of view or make provision for them.

The point of democracy is not to railroad over those we see as losers. Too many people see it as a sport where having backed the winning side you get to behave like old-style football hooligans. In the end we all have to live together afterwards.

Julie Dalphinis

Sunnymede Drive, Barkingside