Welshwife "There are a lot of questions about the referendum as well you know and it did not follow the normal rules - that is what half the problem is - people feel duped - not enough people voting and also no majority % set before hand - Cameron being so sure he would win."
Welshwife I posted this when you posted about the referendum previously. I can't say more so I am reposting it.
Just one other thing you say "Cameron being so sure he would win". Does this mean that the rules for voting would have been changed? Surely this would be fixing the vote.
Allygran1 Mon 14-May-18 15:11:57
With regard to Brexit, two things happened, as we all know: a referendum advising Government of the popular support by majority for a course of action in this case leave the EU. Followed later by a general election. These two actions together had the result of giving Parliament a popularist clear mandate for delivering brexit.
Conservatives, Labour, and UKIP stood for election on a promise to respect the Brexit referendum result. The majority of MP.s were elected or re-elected on a brexit and some on a hard brexit party platform.
All MP's voted in at the General Election ran on their party manifestos. The people who voted Conservative, Labour and UKIP candidates in, did so on a deliver Brexit mandates, as promised in their party's manifestos.
With a total joint share of the vote for parties who stood for election at the general election being 85% for the three party's who promised in their manifestos to respect the brexit referendum majority vote, ( Acknowledgment: Annette Bongardt and Francisco Torres Senior visiting Fellows in the Europea Political Economy at LSE European Institute), the expectation should be that the Parliamentary system should vote through the Brexit Bill as it is commonly known by that sort of majority.
The Conservatives stood on a 'better no deal than a bad deal" - hard brexit and increased their share of the vote by 5.5%. whilst not increasing the number of Conservative MP's the increase in the share of the vote showed they had won the popular vote on the hard Brexit stance.
It's important to note that Labour, having stood at the General Election on a "respect the Brexit majority vote", after the GE the party changed their stance. A deception of a majority of Labour voters on a grand scale. It might be that this U turn will affect the Parliamentary vote on the Brexit Bill. This could have long term negative repercussions on a Corbyn led Labour Party at the next GE.
Our Parliamentary democracy depends on the integity of the political party's standing by the mandates on which they stood for election.
Parliament through the MP's elected on a respect brexit mandate have a duty to represent the views of the people who voted for them based on their mandate.
I trust in our democratic system and have confidence that the majority and populist voters of both the referendum and the GE will find their trust in the advisory and democratic system of the UK has not been misplaced.
The words referendum and plebiscite refer to electoral institutions in which the mass of the population votes on an issue.
However, they have very different political connotations. Plebiscite is a negative term referring to an unfair and unfree vote in an undemocratic political system.
ukandeu.ac.uk/referendum-or-plebiscite-whats-the-difference/