Defending BREXIT (and democracy)

Voters knew what they were doing in June 2016.  The vast majority of voters (both 'leave' and 'remain') were very well  aware that leaving the EU would have consequences. The great preponderance of 'experts', who opined on the issue, were clearly of the view that Brexit - were it to happen - would at best lead to a period of uncertainty and at worst could cause a serious and sustained economic downturn. But, despite all the warnings, 17.4mn people voted to leave. They didn’t simply wake up on the morning of 23 June 2016 and suddenly decide that they no longer wanted to be part of the EU. By that point, dissatisfaction with the EU had been simmering for more than 40 years. Generally speaking the people of the United Kingdom are a fairly tolerant bunch. As a country we tend not to rush into things and, by and large, we are prepared to give people a chance.    By any measure, the EU has had its chance. The EU has had four decades to convince the British p...

In June 2016 voters were presented   with a simple in/out choice: either to remain in the EU or leave. When faced with that straightforward, binary proposition, 17.4 million people voted to leave the EU. Not only is it undemocratic, it is also patronizing in the extreme to suggest that voters who opted for ‘leave’ made a mistake because they did not understand what they were voting for. Voters did not make a mistake. They voted to leave the EU – that was the question that was asked. Voters had multiple reasons for wanting to leave the EU. Not all voters wanted to leave for the same reasons. Clearly, some of the major issues can be categorised as: ‘sovereignty’ ‘immigration’ ‘the cost of EU membership’ and ‘increasing interference from Brussels across a range of issues’. Nor were voters misled or duped. Voters opted to leave the EU in the knowledge that there might very well be, in fact probably would be negative economic consequences for the country as a whole. They were ...

So who exactly voted to leave and why? According to the accepted ‘remain’ line, the great preponderance of the 17.4mn people were either racist, ignorant and / or gullible   - not least because they accepted the claim about £350mn additional funding for the NHS. Not only that, but according to Clegg, a substantial number of ‘leave’ voters have since realised the error they made on 23 June 2016 and these are the people that he says should be allowed to change their mind and be given the opportunity to vote in a second referendum.    According to Clegg, voters have the right to change their mind, and anyway, having set aside the referendum result, the EU will naturally welcome us back with open arms and what’s more, it will listen earnestly to our complaints and change its ways to accommodate the aspirations of the British people in a “new deal”, so that “with a combination of ingenuity and generosity, we can reach a settlement that represents all sides of the debate”...