To The Age Paola Totaro quotes a British legal expert on Brexit as noting of the Queen's willingness to have the UK parliament prorogued that "it would have been undemocratic to have consented and undemocratic not to assent" ("PM's move "boxed in" Queen", 31/8). The question then is which choice is more democratic than the other. In your editorial ("Johnson should heed Whitlam-era lessons", 30/8) you argue that UK prime minister Boris Johnson is "using his executive power to stymie the will of Parliament", but the more important truth is that he is using it to faithfully represent the will of the people as unequivocally established in the 2016 referendum. On the issue of Brexit that referendum decision must take ethical precedence over the personal views of MPs in parliament. This constitutional issue is more important than all other parliamentary business. Not to honour the referendum would be a disgraceful refusal to play the game and fundamentally corrupt the UK political process.
Nigel Jackson, Belgrave