This man has written 118 letters to The New European

THE NEW EUROPEAN: Who is Robert Miller?

ROBERT MILLER: Well, I’m 49 and am currently in Liverpool. And just as actors are never unemployed but are ‘resting’, I think it would not be unreasonable to say I’m a ‘freelance’ journalist. Although my last actual job was – largely – doing crap with Excel spreadsheets, so not quite sure what you would call that. Temping, I guess.

TNE: Can you describe your feelings on the morning of June 24 2016?

RM: I can indeed. It was sheer relief. I didn’t think we were going to do it, particularly after the grotesque murder of MP Jo Cox. I thought there was bound to be a big backlash against the ‘out’ campaign because of it. Maybe there was and we (if you’ll excuse the conceit of saying ‘we’), would have won by a much greater margin than we did.

https://twitter.com/TheNewEuropean/status/869441419148218368

MORE: Read Robert Miller’s article in full

TNE: What made you start writing to The New European?

RM: I think I just happened to spot you in a newsagents, and interest piqued, bought a copy. I started writing because I thought I had some legitimate points to make. God knows how many I’ve sent you! I guess if I looked in my ‘sent’ folder I could count them up, but, alas, it’s not quite as straightforward as that, as I use a combination of my laptop and tablet to send them. In a year I must have racked up a fair few, I figure.

TNE: Does it frustrate or amuse you that we don’t print any of them? Have you ever thought of stopping?

https://twitter.com/TheNewEuropean/status/875801432125034497

RM: Initially it frustrated me because I thought I had legitimate points to make. And you did tend to print pro-out letters written by people who can’t spell, write grammatically, make any sense or are clearly bonkers. Now it amuses me you don’t publish them. I almost feel morally obligated to write each week and to see what you come up with, which I think are genuinely quite witty. Have I become a New European institution, do you think? (Which is an incredibly conceited thing to allege.)

TNE: What do you think will happen with Brexit? Will we actually leave the EU?

RM: I fear a so-called ‘soft’ Brexit, which to my mind is no Brexit at all. Still under the jurisdiction of the ECJ and any Brussels’ directive, still unable to control our own borders and have to accept free movement of people from within the EU, and unable to sign our own trade deals with whomsoever we wish. If that’s what ‘out’ looks like what was the point?

https://twitter.com/TheNewEuropean/status/871825179072135169

WHAT YOU’VE BEEN MISSING: THE BEST OF ROBERT’S LETTERS

23 September 2016: ‘Your front page strapline reads ‘Read this paper, be more clever’. Is that similar to ‘cleverer’?’

3 October 2016: ‘Mike Hind argues that calling people ‘stupid’ for voting for Brexit is a bad idea. Does calling my letters ‘bananas’ fall into that category?’

4 October 2016: ‘Could you tell Hardeep Singh Kohli that constantly contriving to artificially alliterate is totally tiresome.’

25 October 2016: ‘I apologise for the lack of letters. My £2 for your last edition is currently fructifying in your bank account but I have not had time to read it. I’ve had more important things on my hands, such as cataloguing my collection of Daily Mail editorials.’

15 February 2017: ‘It occurs to me that AC Grayling’s articles have been written as a spoof by Craig Brown.’

31 March 2017: ‘I have read Matt Kelly’s editorial in last week’s paper. If Matt had a pram there would no longer be any toys in it.’

15 April 2017: ‘Paul Knott writes: ‘All readers of this newspaper would like to see Brexit reversed’. Not while I continue to buy it.’