John Reynolds (Standard Letters, February 21, “There was no word of a promise on the bus”) says no promises were made when the Brexit bus read “let’s fund our NHS instead”.

The word “instead” clearly and deliberately implies a promise to send that amount to the NHS.

Even ignoring the fact that the very message itself was a lie (after rebates the UK paid £250million) it is a fact that many people voted on that emotive and honestly held belief.

Mr Reynolds also suggests that the remain camp have only this argument, and “nothing new”.

What about the myriad of other claims of the leave campaign?

Turkey to join EU meaning potentially 80 million more migrants to the UK.

Turkey is not joining the EU and 80 million is their entire population, trade with Europe will be seamless with no tariffs or customs checks and would be “the easiest trade deal in history”, numerous trade deals will be “ready by March 2019”, Brexit “will not be a problem for the Irish border” to name but a few.

As an EU member we had 40 deals spanning 70 countries.

If we leave with no deal, we will lose these overnight, causing widespread harm to businesses, price rises and job losses.

Deal or no deal, every single analysis including the Government’s own has concluded that we will be economically worse off for decades to come.

Those who point out that none of the “gloomy” predictions have materialised not only forget that the UK went from the fastest growing G7 economy to the slowest immediately after the referendum and the pound plummeted overnight, but should know that nothing much changes during this transition period.

It will be next year that the harsh realities will finally dawn on those who rely only on blind hope and misplaced patriotism.

Peter Michaels

Ashley Road

Dovercourt