Let us hope the Tories are stopped before they do any more damage to UK, and that in Northern Ireland we maximise the unionist vote

Such notions are subtly manipulated by Messrs Johnson and Farage. Truth means little to them, it can be re-written in a kind of “doublethink”. George Orwell would be horrified, but perhaps not surprised. Government documents may outline the details of a border in the Irish Sea, but our Orwellian PM denies it anyway. Truth is nowhere to be found.

But I recently rediscovered an authentic document in my attic, untouched by Mr Johnson. It’s a copy of the letter sent by George VI to all schoolchildren on 8 June 1946, on the occasion of post-war victory celebrations. My mum would have carefully brought it home, my grandad lovingly framed it.

The king says that he knows children will always feel proud to belong to a country which was capable of such a supreme effort. He then wishes children well as they grow up to make their contribution to peace and unity among the countries of the world.

I can’t believe that, in 2019, those children, and indeed their own children and grandchildren, will turn their backs on such hopes and ventures, which must always start with unity in our own UK, and then within our common European home.

The Conservatives must be stopped before they do any more damage. Let’s hope that in Great Britain millions of people vote tactically in the general election, to that end, and that in NI we maximise the unionist vote. Let’s hope that, sooner or later, we can have a final say referendum and stay in that common European home as one United Kingdom, where we can build prosperity, unity and peace, confident in ourselves and afraid of nothing.

John Gemmell, Shropshire