Thursday, October 13, 2016

13 reasons that the Brexit vote is not the Democratic Will of the People


Yesterday Sterling fell to a 168-year low as Parliament was trying to discuss Brexit.
Brexiters repeat their mantra: it is the Democratic Will of the People.
Brexit is not the Will of the People; it is just a deeply flawed advisory referendum.
Here are the flaws:





  1. The referendum result was designed to be based on a simple majority. If 17,000,001 had voted for Brexit, and 16,999,999 had voted to Remain, Theresa May would still be running round in circles shouting "Brexit means Brexit".

    The fact is that to change the constitution of the local tennis club or any other group, it is normal to demand a supermajority, as for instance, 67% against 33%.
  2. 17.4 million voted for Brexit, but 16.1 million voted to Remain. The majority was therefore 1.3 million votes. 1,269,501 to be exact, out of an electorate of 46,499,537. That is 2.7% of the electorate. 2.7% is hardly the Will of the People. It is more like the Will of 2.7% of the People.
  3. Before the election, Farage said that a 48/52 result would be "unfinished business" in his view. Not one broadcaster or journalists has raised this with him after the election.
  4. The Brexit vote was won on the basis of lies such as "£350 million a week for the NHS". These lies set a precedent for undermining the accuracy of information in future elections, which in itself undermines democracy. Promises about freedom of movement and fish quotas by the Leave campaign were also abandoned after the referendum
  5. In the 2015 General election, the Green Party of England and Wales got 1,157,613 votes - pretty much the same as the Referendum majority.
    The 1m Green voters were rewarded with 1 (one) MP.
    The 1m Leave voters were rewarded with the biggest plunge into constitutional and economic unknowns in UK history.
    All votes are equal, but some votes are more equal than others, it seems.
  6. 1.2 million Brits living in the EU were denied a chance to vote in the Referendum. If they had been given a voice, the chances are that the margin would have been even more slender, because many of them are dismayed by the result.
  7. 1.5 million 16-17 year olds were denied a vote, unlike the Scottish Referendum
  8. The terms of the Brexit deal were not known. We have a right to vote on the terms
  9. Strict spending limits were spent on campaigning groups, but none on the 5 anti-EU billionaires who own 3/4 of the news readership, who were able to benefit for £millions of free advertorial space
  10. 40% of voters knew nothing about EU democracy
  11. Revisions of referendum decisions when the results and implication are known have a long series of precedents going back to ancient Greece
  12. The referendum was stated to be advisory, but is now being treated as mandatory by Brexiters
  13. 6% of Leave voters now regret their decision to vote Leave. (Scroll down to th eheading Regrets? we've had a few)


[points 7-12 are sourced from the excellent Donnachad McCarthy's equally excellent book theProstitutestate.co.uk]


Still, never mind - it may never happen:








3 comments:

Hairyloon said...

Typo on point 13...

DocRichard said...

Electoral Commission bares its gums at Aaron Banks's donations. Were they admissible? https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/nov/01/electoral-commission-to-investigate-arron-banks-brexit-donations-eu-referendum

DocRichard said...

13,493 automated Twitter bots came in on the side of the Leave Europe campaign http://metro.co.uk/2017/10/21/brexit-twitter-bots-posted-65000-messages-then-vanished-after-eu-referendum-7016396/