MARK Francois, vice chair of the Tory ERG, says that “come hell or high water” if Johnson is PM then the UK will leave the EU on October 31. He has of late been showing a nasty, unbalanced side and hurling threats to protesters that they will be “gone” after Brexit!

I suppose that one could say humorously that he has “lost his cedilla” as he has abandoned the cedilla under the “c” in his French surname. His accent has indeed shifted and he has morphed into a bit of a bruiser when one hears him in the media. From now on, one should address him in print with the cedilla added as François. No doubt that will rile him even more. Yet it is obvious that his forbears came from France or French-speaking Belgium or Switzerland.

He obviously has forgotten his roots and has become a little ERGer, a member of the Tory European Research Group, known for extreme xenophobia and vitriolic attacks on opponents even within the very same party.

If you have a knowledge of Dutch you will know “erger” means “worse”, so I think that says it all really. We know that any form of Brexit will be worse than what we have at present.

John Edgar
Kilmaurs