Letter to The Editor - It will take great nerve now to keep Australia on a truly democratic path

To The Age         It may well be that now "the prospect of a delayed, even cancelled Brexit" has become the likely result of the immense struggle going on over the constitutional future of the UK ("Parliament says 'bollocks' to May's Brexit bid", 14/3); but there has been little discussion out here of the profound effect on our own national psyche of what looks like a successful sabotage by a political elite of the 52% popular decision in the 2016 referendum in favour of departure from the EU. Australians generally have hitherto looked up to "the mother country" as a bastion of liberty standing as an encouragement to our own attempt to build a nation of similar ideals here. Suddenly we see it as just another more-or-less corrupt oligarchy among the masses around the world. It will take great nerve now to keep Australia on a truly democratic path.
  Nigel Jackson, Belgrave, Vic