It's a crisis of democracy when the people voted so clearly and they're not given what they voted for. They're being slowly ignored by the political class.
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EU agrees Brexit extension to 31 January
11–20 of 57 posts
Re: EU agrees Brexit extension to 31 January
#12At some point they should give the UK an indefinite extension so the UK can just remain in the process of leaving for the next several decades.
There's nothing more permanent than a temporary solution...
Re: EU agrees Brexit extension to 31 January
#13Flagged as off topic. And probable rubbish comment thread.
Re: EU agrees Brexit extension to 31 January
#14It's a crisis of democracy when the people voted so clearly and they're not given what they voted for. They're being slowly ignored by the political class.
To me it's far more complex than this - the vote was a) extremely tight and b) fought on the basis of outright lies (on both sides, as I recall). Not only this but the original question was simply whether to leave the EU - with no consideration given to the fact there's a near-infinite number of ways that can be done (no deal, deal, Norway-style, etc).
I believe these are the reasons that the government + parliament have found it so hard/failed to come to a conclusion. It's also the reason I don't think this whole saga is anywhere near done.
Personally I'd like to see a second ref on specific options, but that seems unlikely now.
Re: EU agrees Brexit extension to 31 January
#15It's a crisis of democracy when the people voted so clearly and they're not given what they voted for. They're being slowly ignored by the political class.
I'm not sure what you think people voted so clearly on. No vote has ever been very clear about what the people wanted concerning Brexit. There has never been a public vote on a hard Brexit, merely on an intention to leave the EU, without any plan or specification about how. Many people campaigning for the Leave vote argued that the UK would stay in the common market, so you could easily argue that the people voted to stay in the common market.
It's true that what the people want is getting ignored by the political class; polls show a majority of the public wants to stay in the EU, now that is has become clear what leaving means, but the government keeps insisting on the hardest possible Brexit, against both common sense and the will of the people.
Re: EU agrees Brexit extension to 31 January
#16It's a crisis of democracy when the people voted so clearly and they're not given what they voted for. They're being slowly ignored by the political class.
"Leave won by 1 million. No of EU citizens who couldn't vote 3 million. No of British abroad who couldn't vote 700,000. Citizens of 53 Commonwealth countries were able to vote just by being UK residents. Will of "the people"- depends on who you asked #BrexitExtension" https://twitter.com/KatarinaKeys/status/1188785762436816896 But it is indeed a crisis of democracy: the elected leaders should be able to prevent self-…
Would you have been making the same argument if the situation was reversed?
I.e. the elected leaders held a position you strongly disagreed with, and there had been a referendum on the question in which the opposition to that idea had won?
Re: EU agrees Brexit extension to 31 January
#17Earlier quoted context omitted.
In what world is 51.89%/48.11% "so clear"? You make it sound like it was 90%.
It's baffling to me that Parliament requires a 2/3 vote to call an early election, but something earthshaking like leaving the EU somehow is 50% + 1.
At no point would there have been a 2/3 majority to join the EU in the first place, though.
Re: EU agrees Brexit extension to 31 January
#18What happened to the ditch Boris Was going to dig?
Re: EU agrees Brexit extension to 31 January
#19What happened to the ditch Boris Was going to dig?
Die in
Re: EU agrees Brexit extension to 31 January
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
In what world is 51.89%/48.11% "so clear"? You make it sound like it was 90%.
It's baffling to me that Parliament requires a 2/3 vote to call an early election, but something earthshaking like leaving the EU somehow is 50% + 1.
It was only an advisory referendum, not a binding one. (It would actually have been declared non-binding had it been binding, due to the Leave campaign breaking the law.)
It's not the referendum that's to blame here, it's the government that's using the referendum as an excuse to push through their own ideas.