RARELY has the community value of local newspapers been shown to greater effect than in the Times letters pages of recent weeks — especially regarding the EU referendum.

For in these columns, local residents of differing opinions — often radically — have been able to express their feelings on this highly contentious issue; also on the virtues or drawbacks in actually holding the referendum itself.

Can there, however, be any fairer way of giving citizens a direct say in national affairs?

For everyone has the opportunity to express his or her beliefs free from the, so often, intellectual bondage of party political loyalties — and every vote counts in a meaningful way.

Thus this recent, dramatic plebiscite was surely as pure an exercise in true egalitarianism as could ever be devised. Some will be pleased by the result, others most upset, as displayed in the letters.

Yet, whatever way one voted, I would suggest, respectfully, that it was an exercise in which the nation could take pride; for it was one which saw in reality the triumph of the democratic process for which we have fought and made major sacrifice over the centuries. It has left divisions in society, naturally, but, in time, these will heal.

In the mean time, should we not heed the Queen’s advice — ‘keep calm and carry on’?

Ted Sherrell

Tavistock