MANY people believe that the Brexit referendum of 2016 established the will of the people. It did; but with two major caveats: a) much of the necessary information was not available b) the information provided was often inadequate or misleading,

If we are serious about ascertaining the current will of the people, I believe we need to take the process out of the hands of the politicians, who have shown themselves to be supremely inept at reaching any consensus on a national approach. In my view, we need to set up a National Emergency Commission which would establish beyond reasonable doubt what the true mood of the country is.

To this end the commission needs to be headed by someone who is non-political and who commands wide-spread respect. Sir David Attenborough is the sort of person I have in mind (and I thought of him well before his Glastonbury appearance). We would need to establish a number of conditions eg that there would be no further referendum on this issue for say, 10 years.

As things now stand, this country faces the prospect of becoming something of a laughing stock in the eyes of other nations. The establishment of a National Emergency Commission is, I believe, our best way forward.

Hon Christopher Garner,

Edinburgh EH6.