• SIR Bob Geldof has just been reported as linking Brexit with “English nationalism”. Presumably, we are meant to assume this to be a “bad thing”.

Are we also to assume that Irish nationalism is to be deplored? Or their equivalents elsewhere?

In the UK the vote for a return to self-determination and the proper primacy of parliament (not its nodding-dog European Union substitute) was carried most gratifyingly in the England beyond the multi-everything cities and conurbations, reminding us that our forebears fought and died for the right to run our own lives and the freedom that gave us, despite the sorrows, the sacrifices and the hardships that resulted, and no low consideration of personal convenience should override that priceless reward.

We lost our way in my lifetime, deceived by the ever-changing, ever-encroaching power base beyond these shores that has so often shown itself so dismissive of the wishes of the peoples it purports to represent.

Now the sanity and the self-respect has returned and if that is based in English nationalism, I for one shout “hurrah” and hold my head a little higher!

MARK NEWBERRY, Harcourt Street, W1