SIR – It is so reassuring that someone else on here (Sue Hocking; Why was the bar not set higher?, May 14) is prepared to run the gauntlet and point out the constitutional absurdity of the 2016 referendum.

I would extend her figures, and point out that 63 per cent of the electorate did not actually vote for Brexit.

Ms Hocking, most appropriately, asks: “what has happened to our political order?” It is clear that hard Brexiters have a peculiar way of expressing their patriotism, one in which they proclaim their huge love for Britain while trashing its institutions (including its democratic ones) with unrestrained hatred.

The Bank of England, the supreme court, the civil service and the BBC have all been charged with being “enemies of the people”; “traitors”, “wreckers” and “saboteurs” all.

The latest target, including in at least one letter on this page, is the House of Lords. The case for its reform is quite a strong one, but, the last time that this was proposed (when Cameron was PM), prominent Brexiter-MPs all voted to keep it as it is. These included Jacob Rees-Mogg and David Davis, now Brexit Secretary. The former, just a few short years later, now says that “it is not a loved institution, and raises the issue of reform”.

Consistency? Clear principles?

Coherent basic belief ? Forget them all; this is certainly not the “political order” whose loss is mourned by Ms Hocking.

DAVID BARLOW Worceste