Thursday’s vote does not mean that the British people, or even 52% of them, have rejected the idea of living in a reformed EU. It means that they are not satisfied with the reforms on offer. In order to make it possible for the UK to rejoin and, more immediately, to prevent other countries deciding to leave, two reforms are required. The first is to change the principle of the free movement of people. As it stands, this gives citizens of any EU country the right to settle in any other without regard to the consequences for the people already living there. None of the valuable functions of the EU requires this. Secondly, the EU must now take subsidiarity seriously. It should examine all its present activities to see which of them could be returned to member states.
Stephen Plowden
London
• Britain voted to leave the EU in the month we learned that last year’s net migration to the UK was a record 335,000 people (UK population grew by half a million last year, 24 June). The vote was a protest against mass immigration and the linked issues of stagnant wages and rising rents. The EU needs to respond urgently by offering the UK (and any other member state that wants it) an opt-out from the free movement of people. This would address the main reason for the vote to leave, and make it perfectly legitimate for the UK government to offer a second referendum, rather than rush to start the exit process. An opt-out would also assuage anti-EU sentiments in several other EU countries.
Richard Mountford
Tonbridge, Kent
