ALONG with, sadly, several other contributors to Echo letters, Mr Fry (letters, February 1) doesn't understand the first element of democracy, which is the right to change your mind next time around. He asks why we want to overturn the result of the referendum when we don't try to overturn other elections, when in fact we do it all the time! Each election is followed by the next one, when we may vote the same way or vote differently – 'overturning' the previous result. That's how democracy works. As a democrat, I want to exercise my democratic right to vote on Mrs May's deal and tell her whether or not it's acceptable.

I was amused to read that when Mr Fry goes to France he is visiting Europe. He is not. He is visiting the continent. Britain is part of Europe, and by going to France he is merely going from one part of Europe to another.

At the end of his letter he tells us that he doesn't want to be ruled by 'them', without making it clear who 'them' are. If he means the EU and the parliament located in Brussels, then he can sleep peacefully in his bed because we are not ruled by them any more than we are ruled by the parliament in London or the council in the civic offices. There are layers of 'rule', and whatever power the parliament in Brussels has it's because, of our own free will, we gave it to them because we saw potential gains from belonging to the largest and strongest economic bloc in the world.

A final word about another contributor, who says – quite rightly – that we should eat 'ugly', ie, misshapen, food as we did in the old days. The decision not to sell 'ugly' fruit and veg was taken by the supermarkets themselves for commercial reasons, and has nothing to do with the EU. There are EU regulations about the quality of fruit and veg being packed in boxes to ensure that the number of items is consistent with the weight, but there are no EU regulations regarding fruit and veg sold loose. Been to a farmers' market recently?

Martin Kyrle

Chandler's Ford