AS a Remain supporter prior to last June’s referendum on our membership of the EU, Chancellor Philip Hammond is being prudent not to spend more than he needs in the last ever ‘spring’ Budget. He is no doubt well aware that the ‘Brexit Bubble’ is about to burst with potentially horrific consequences for the people of this country.
The news that car makers Vauxhall are being brought out by the French, where many of the parts are manufactured, is just one of the harbingers of the train crash that we are fast heading towards. A crash that will, in all likelihood, deprive the state of the ability to pay for the current NHS, let alone for any improvements to it, as demanded by many that see and understand its problems.
How much more sensible then, for the people of this country to be offered a vote over the destination that Theresa May wishes to take us down, with a parachute clause available to allow the country to return on the same terms to the EU. 
This decision has to be made by the people, because having once had the EU referendum, our Parliament, with its self-serving MPs, in both the Conservative and Labour Parties, have largely lost their ability to stand up and be counted on to speak common sense, let alone to vote for it.
Of course, many things can happen between now and when we actually leave the EU. 
The French elections, the first round of which is due on April 23, could lead to a La Penn victory for the far right, or it might not. The key to our long-term success and indeed survival as a nation, must be to maintain flexibility and not be locked to one fixed idea which originated from the narrowly-won result of June 23, 2016. Especially here in North Wiltshire where the popular vote was to remain in the EU.
We must be imaginative and quick on our feet, and this is something that this Conservative Government just isn’t.
DR BRIAN MATHEW
Liberal Democrat Prospective MP for North Wiltshire