“symbolic” being the key word.
This won’t lead to anything.
I wish Brexit was a symbolic vote.
It was…
Then it wasn’t.
But what would be the point of having a referendum, getting the results and then just saying “oh right, that’s interesting” and doing nothing?
The smart move would be to do Brexit the same way NZ did their flag referendum. First, consult to figure out a small number of possible popular forms of Brexit: soft, hard, technically-still-in-but-with-more-opt-outs? Work it out in enough detail that people can have a relatively clear idea of the goal of each of the 3–5 options, including details like migration, Northern Ireland, and agricultural policy.
Then, put those small number of options to a vote. Ideally using Instant Runoff Voting or Approval Voting, rather than First Past the Post. “Do nothing at all” is not an option at this stage.
Finally, put the option that won the last vote in a head-to-head vote against “do nothing at all”. If the “exit” vote wins, trigger article 50 and negotiate according to the clearly-stated goals of the people.
“Brexit means Brexit”, tory MPs kept saying. Absolute nonsense. Brexit meant a thousand things to a thousand people. Pretending otherwise made a mockery of democracy.
It’s absolutely insane that New Zealand put more effort into proper democratic processes over something as trivial as their flag design than the UK did over their most fundamental piece of foreign policy.
What would be the point of having a referendum and deciding that 51% was enough to burn it all without a plan?
The stupidity of politicians is not a reason to ignore what people vote for.
I didn’t say ignore the vote. Your reading comprehension is atrocious.
Let me think… Possibly because it was based on lies, manipulation and the significant part of the UK residents were disenfranchised?
Who was disenfranchised? It was the biggest democratic vote in the UK’s history, if I recall correctly.
Just three million of EU citizens in the UK and hundreds of thousands of UK citizens in the EU.
They can’t vote in general elections either.
Keep the pressure on and maybe we can get this to a second vote before it;s quietly shelved this time!
All of the Conservatives who voted, 78 of them, opposed the idea
I’m mildly surprised by that, since FPTP actively hurt them at the last election.
It’s only temporary. Once they’ve bribed farage sufficiently he’ll disband the reform party and the tories will return to dominating elections through the corruption of FPTP. The absurd thing is Labour refuse to accept this and will blunder on refusing to accept we need a proportional electoral system
Labour have just won a 174 seat majority on 34% of the vote with FPTP.
There would be no benefit to them in changing the system.
In my opinion labour’s victory was due to the utter incompetence of the conservatives and unexpected success of the reform party. I don’t believe these circumstances will be repeated so labour will get demolished as usual in the next election. The same applies to the lib dems getting 70 seats under FPTP. It won’t be repeated so they must work together to repair the damn system
It might have lost the party the election
But the rich party donors don’t actually mind their party losing as long as they also control the second party well enough to avoid regulations, taxes, or any modicum of responsibility towards society.
FPTP isn’t about which party wins, it’s about reducing the power of the electorate far enough that change only happens with the content of the rich.
Yeah but they’d get fucked with PR.
Labour less so but they would still prefer FPTP over PR for party reasons. And without one or both of these large groups nothing will change. 😞
