ONCE again the myth of ‘taking back control’ rears its head on your letters page.

All this talk of how we used to be a great trading nation seems to forget that much of that was because we were either exploiting our so-called ‘Empire’ or we were using our navy to exert influence.

We are able to control our own borders, and there are huge chunks of the country that have benefitted greatly from EU regeneration money. All we seem to be doing at the moment is desperately trying to do deals similar to those the EU has with Canada and Japan, but without the same benefits or influence. It is also a shame many of our industries have suffered due to privatisation, poor investment and a lack of Government policy.

I am tired of looking backwards towards an imagined great past and honestly think that at the moment we are a country trapped in a state of inertia in which the crippling effects of the misguided austerity programmes still impact upon many.

It was not an ‘overwhelming’ vote for Brexit and many people were misled by the misinformation of career opportunists such as Boris Johnson. John Grogan is correct about the Repeal Bill, which is a dangerous precedent that hands undemocratic powers to an unelected and unsustainable Prime Minister. Brexit arose because of a fear that UKIP would steal the Tory Party’s votes and nobody expected a small minority to tip the balance.

Instead of blaming John Grogan for wanting to uphold the law, I think you should reflect on how you thought that the likes of Johnson, Davis and Fox would ever care about anything other than their own careers.

There has never been a plan for exiting the EU or what we would do after we, allegedly, leave. The talks have made us the laughing stock of real politicians the world over and we still have Theresa May repeating the same slogans and buzzwords after all this time.

Brexit was essentially a vote for something that hadn’t been thought through and still hasn’t, and that is something that I think you should be more concerned with rather than John Grogan being concerned about his constituents’ future.

ANTONY SILSON Keighley