I must reply to Peter Apap Bologna’s article of November 28, ‘English and British’ in which he attacks my letter of November 21 (not reproduced in full) on quite false grounds. I was not supporting Brexit – in fact my wife and I voted to remain and have supported the UK’s membership of the European Community from the start – I was trying to explain the Brexit vote.

With due respect, Apap Bologna is an onlooker, not a player, and as such may see most of the game. However, it is the players who decide the outcome of the game, whatever the onlookers feel it should be.

One cannot subscribe entirely with his statement that there is a ‘section’ of British – and Maltese – which is racist and anti-Semitic. There are such people but one cannot say that there are 17 million of them in the UK or that voting to leave the EU implies racism or anti-Semitism. It is no secret that many people in the UK (as in the US) were feeling that the present system was not working to their benefit – and that they were fed up with the many controls – for which they were paying – and wanted a new page to be turned.

I agree with Mr Bologna that common sense would dictate that Britain should remain in the EU, but like him I am a comfortably off, middle-class person who can sit back and offer opinions as to what others should do. He puts forward all the potential problems of Brexit and the political divisions at the ‘top’ – a recipe for doom and gloom.

We can only hope that Teresa May, who is an excellent leader, can win through a challenging situation and reach a successful outcome. She may surprise us.