A majority now or when it matters? #thefiftypointtwo

Mon, 04 Jul 2016 00:00:00 +0000

The quickest glance at my posts and tweets will tell you two things: (1) we just voted on a multi-faceted complex issue with too little understanding further muddied by the lies pedalled by both sides , and (2) I believe everyone in the UK is better off by our remaining in the European Union.

There’s a reason Margaret Thatcher concurred with Lord Attlee in describing referenda as “a device of dictators and demagogues” – the same reason the UK has representative parliamentary democracy and not direct democracy. (If only David Cameron had paid more attention in class.)

Former Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg describes the resultant mess as a “debilitating cocktail of hubris, incompetence and dishonesty ”.

Yet putting the well-known shortcomings of direct democracy to one side for the moment, we must accept that just shy of 52% of voters went to the polling stations last month and put a cross against Leave. The majority has spoken, right?

Neither Leave nor Remain is perfect, of course, yet to my mind the Leave argument is akin to trashing your car because the ride is a bit bumpy, so I find myself asking … which majority should we be thinking about?

Thefiftypointtwo on Philip Sheldrake

A majority now or when it matters? #thefiftypointtwo