The Final Say campaign is bound to charter a new path in British politics

Please send your letters to letters@independent.co.uk

Hats off to The Independent for embracing the will of the people and the cherished cause of democracy. This campaign is bound to demolish the monopoly of power and decision-making and charter a new path of new politics when the voices of the dispossessed and the forgotten will not only be heard but heeded.

The Independent therefore stands as a steadfast ally for empowerment and participation, for equality and mutual respect and recognition; the principles that will define our unbreakable relationship with our elected representatives.

Dr Munjed Farid Al Qutob​
London NW2

Young people need to be heard, too

How dare Dominic Raab say that a second referendum would be a breach of faith with voters?

Some 2 million 18- to 21-year-olds have not had the chance to make their view known at the ballot box; that’s significantly more than the Leave majority in 2016. They will be the group most affected and for the longest by this momentous change. Not having a second vote is what would be a breach of faith with them, this country’s future!

Philip Mitchell
Winchester

Two birds

We need an extension to the end of March 2020 to allow political parties to properly organise their campaigns, plus we were told that referendums take months to organise.

Then of course we are into the run-up to Christmas and New Year and the public will want to enjoy those, and not be dragged down with any kind of election. We might have extreme weather, and that will put people off from going out to vote.

My suggestion is for a general election in early February, and whatever the result, we have until the end of March to adjust. Should we get another Referendum, hopefully that could be done sooner rather than later. Possibly have the two on the same day.

Richard Grant
Ringwood, Hampshire

We need time for proper scrutiny

Now that the Letwin amendment has been passed by parliament the prime minister will have to allow time for his dubious deal to be scrutinised before assent could be given. Could this be properly done in only eight or nine working days? It seems unlikely.

The Benn Act prevents the UK from being taken out of the EU without a deal on 31 October, the date on which the current extension to Article 50 ends.

If the EU declines to allow a further extension, then at the end of this month we would be unable to leave with a deal, and unable to leave without one.

So the only alternative would be revocation of Article 50. Wouldn’t it?

And what an exquisite irony it would be if such an eventuality were to arise because of Boris Johnson’s follow-up letter to the EU, in which he said that although he had been obliged to request an extension, such was not his choice.

We who filled the streets of London on Saturday can only dream...

Susan Alexander
Frampton Cotterell, South Gloucestershire

A divorce from reality

The initial consultation for the government’s Divorce, Dissolution and Separation Bill saw 83 per cent of the public are against this change in legislation.

Why then is the government intent on pushing forward such an unpopular bill? Is this just another example of how government ministers or civil servants do not fully understand marriage and happily ignore the will of the people in this country? Are we a democracy or not?

J Longstaff
Buxted, East Sussex

A healthy debate

Your article by an American physician claiming that vaping is probably safer than smoking cigarettes suffers from a fallacious argument which I have seen used by others including a UK public health doctor.

Cigarette-smoking studies are based on a history of at least 130 years of cigarette use, during which time a proportion of several generations have smoked for their entire adult lives. Vaping is recent and not a single generation has lived long enough to make any sensible statistical comparison with smoking. Until two matched cohorts can be compared for their lifetimes no meaningful statistical comparison is possible.

Evan Bayton
Warrington, Cheshire