AP Milroy (June 21) wonders how history will look back on the Brexit debacle, and in particular the role of ‘posh’ politicians such as Cameron and Johnson.

Future historians will either split their sides laughing at the antics of the politicians and ‘establishment’ over the past three years on Brexit, or they will be so preoccupied with the effects of global warming on the human race that Brexit will just be a bewildering footnote.

If historians do have time to review Brexit they will probably conclude that it was a time when the widespread distrust in politicians was proven to be justified. The same historians may shake their heads at the way in which a Labour party was taken over by a handful of aged Marxists/Fascists — sitting Labour MPs ran away from a fight for their own party.

Historians will conclude that the ‘impartiality’ of bodies like the BBC, civil servants, and the Speaker in the Commons were proven to be anything but impartial. Historians may well get a chuckle out of a Speaker who found a parliamentary rule which said that ‘the same Brexit question cannot be put three times’ (a rule last used in 1603 when the Witch-finder General kept asking parliament for more matches with which to burn northern witches-until the Speaker got fed up and limited the same question to twice) to prevent Brexit.

Historians may well scratch their heads at the past 10 years of ‘austerity’ in the UK. No money for anything and no money tree apparently. Yet today both candidates to be prime minster are offering £billions for all kinds of public services if they get elected. These two sat in cabinet when the ‘no money’ mantra was being espoused by government, why did they not then challenge austerity?

As to the posh politicians with their ‘over confidence’, here I disagree with AP Milroy on one point only. It is not ‘over confidence’ that the establishment and their offspring suffer from, but an inbuilt sense of entitlement. Leaders in establishment jobs (politician, civil servant, judiciary, armed forces, church etc) are chosen not by education and talent, but by their parents and schools establishment contacts.

This entitlement is not confined to Tories — many Labour leaders also put their offspring on the establishment ladder through public schools. Boris Johnson feels that he should ‘naturally’ be the next prime minister as did Gordon Brown when he replaced Blair without challenge.

Years ago I met a former Eton pupil at Oxford University and asked him what he intended to do for a career. ‘Politics’ he said. ‘Which party?’ I asked. ‘One that gets me a ministerial job’ he said. Just about says it all. We can only gawp.

Ron Shambley

Clough Avenue

Bolton