Holding a second Brexit referendum would be inherently undemocratic - commentaires

Holding a second Brexit referendum would be inherently undemocratic

There can be many critisms made to referendums, but that they are not democratic is not one of them. Your arguement appears to me to be that they are not democratic because the people cannot be trusted to vote the right way. If democracy is power to the people you are argueing that the people cannot be trusted with this power. You should take some guts and make an arguement as to why the people cannot be trusted to make the decision themselves. The idea that the overthrowing of a democratic vote by the indirect decision of the parliament will not be seen my the majority as an overthrowing of the will of the people is unrealistic. You already admit that its directly democratic overthrowing through a second referendum would be polarising. Imagine if it was a decision by parliament which made the decision ? How would a general election on brexit happen ? Even if labour or the conservatives somehow become pro-remain the election will be primaraly on other issues, as it was in 2017.

Holding a second Brexit referendum would be inherently undemocratic

Thank you for your comment. As you pointed out correctly there was a general election in 2017 that was centred on confirming the Brexit decision, which was indicated in the unbinding referendum of 2016. At that time the negotiations with the EU just started and both sides were optimistic in reaching a deal that would keep the UK closely connected to the EU. Today, however the situation is different, as a no deal scenario is very likely. This raises the issue that a part of the British population was not expecting such an outcome or now changed its mind about leaving the EU. Even if the share of people that support Brexit stayed the same, then I still believe a vote is democratically legitimate. A democracy is based on competition of ideas and deciding, which ideas to implement and which ones not. If the situation changes then the population should have the possibility to change its mind by voting against a formerly adopted law. This means that no decision is ever irreversible.

Holding a second Brexit referendum would be inherently undemocratic

You call for a general election as the only true democratic means of resolving the Brexit polarisation. You may be aware we had a general election in 2017, twelve months after the Referendum. Both the Conservatives and Labour stood on pro Brexit platforms including exiting the single market and the customs union. Between them they obtained 26.5m votes (82%) and both parties saw their share of the vote increase over 2015. These are the representatives who are in post now and they stood very clearly on the position that the referendum exit result would be honoured.

The Remainers had the option of supporting the Liberal Democrats who were equally clear in their wish to remain in the single market and the customs union and fight Brexit every step of the way including a promising a second referendum. How was that received ? In 2010 the Lib Dems got 6.8m votes, in 2015 that fell to 2.4m and in the 2017 one where they were the torch holders for Remainers ? Down even further to 2.3m.

We have had the election you call for with Brexit as a central question and the results are above. But you still call for yet another election. At what point does the pro EU side accept that the result was clear and a clear majority of Britons want to leave the EU and have now voted that way twice.

As a final point, as you correctly point out, Brexit won with 51.9% of the vote. In the French Maastricht Referendum 1992 the pro EU side obtained only 51% of the vote, I do not recall any acceptance that there should be a second vote or general election in that case.