Friday, May 31, 2019

It’s not democratic to drag Britain out of the EU without a final say

Broken promises

Let’s face in, politicians tell lies and when the don’t they spin. Even when they tell the truth a rival may deem it to be a lie. But in a normal election we can punish them for their lies at the next election. Brexiteers said Britain held all the cards and that the remaining EU countries would be falling over themselves to give us a good deal. Instead they have stood solidly behind remaing Ireland over Britain and chose to protect the integrity of the single market over trade with Britain. It’s time now to put those Brexiteer promises to the democratic test of a second referendum.

Not the same question

In 2016 the Brexiteers weren’t asked to present their plan. They used that to offer different kinds of Brexit to different groups of us. Now we know the reality. There’s Theresa May’s deal and there’s crashing out with nodeal. No one in 2016 knew what kind of deal would be negotiated in 2016. We know now. No Brexiteers were talking about nodeal in 2016. We now know is their preferred option. We have not had a say on those two options which is why to drag us out without us having say on the reality of Brexit would be a betrayal of democracy. All three options should be on the ballot paper and we’d be a second choice so we could choose between the two with the most votes if our first choice came last.

Neverendum?

A confirmatory referendum means that the legislation will already have been voted through by parliament. That legislation would include a clause that it would only come into effect if it was approved by a vote of the people. The result would be mandatory and implemented without further legislation.