THIS DEBATE has really degenerated --from a low level.But I promised to write a blog and I am a man of honour.
First a few comments that UK/US/EUROPEAN pundits need to be be apprised of :
Under the UK [unwritten] CONSTITUTION: On laws,taxation and executive action the People's Parliament rules, NOT the people directly by occasional mass votes.From time to time the people elect their representatives to the House of Commons with the duty to represent them --not as their delegates.
The UK is a REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY not a Plebiscitary dictatorship.
For my US friends this is similar to your system,just your Founding Fathers[nearly all from or descended from the UK,after the 1707 Act of Union with Scotland] went to the trouble of arguing it out and writing it down so that a king could not do just anything he wanted--Donald please note.
As you will recall from your civics classes Burke was a supporter of the American Revolution within the British Parliament.
Whatever the outcome of this BREXIT PLEBISCITE vote a decision to actually abrogate the EU treaty requires an act of parliament.That's a series of majority votes in both the Commons and the Lords.
What if the members of parliament choose to excercise their "judgement" rather than follow the result of the BREXIT vote.
IMPOSSIBLE!---you cry.
REALLY ? Well if the majority vote is to REMAIN the question becomes moot.
The government breathes a sigh of relief ,no need to pass any laws,life goes on.
A SMALL THOUGHT EXPERIMENT
There are about 45 million electors out of population of 65 million.
On June 23rd 35% of electors turn out to vote--15.75 million.
51 per cent vote LEAVE 8.032
49 per cent vote REMAIN 7.718
MAJORITY 315,000 or 0.7 per cent of the electorate.
THE REMAIN PROPONENTS CRY THAT IT IS ABSURD TO MAKE SUCH A CHANGE ON
THE BASIS OF 7 VOTES IN A THOUSAND.
Prime Minister Cameron resigns but first arranges for Parliament to have a "free" vote on the EU.
That means each MP gets to vote his conscience.Even if that means for some voting as their constituents voted, there is no guarantee that the result will be a vote to LEAVE.I'd bet the opposite.
How dare they ignore the will of the people !! Well which people exactly? The national majority,their constituency majority or their own judgement as to what is best?Which is nobler?Which more honourable?
And their will when --on the 23rd June or in the opinion polls three weeks after?One is no more constitutionally binding than the other.
Find this scenario absurd?
TRY THIS ONE
Prime minister Cameron resigns.The queen calls a new election.
Sterling falls 15%,the markets crash,mortgage rates soar,retail sales decline,manufacturers lay off workers.
Much popular consternation and the opinion polls show electorate has massive buyers remorse and has apparently changed its collective mind.
All three major parties Tory,Labour ,LibDems now led by three "unelectable" leaders campaign to overturn BREXIT and to REMAIN.
Do you think Nigel Farage will be the new UKIP Prime Minister?
Well I am no Constitutional Scholar but BEFORE I write on the issue itself ,perhaps those of you out there more knowledgeable than I could indicate whether or not a PLEBISCITE is binding on this Parliament.Let alone a future one,however soon elected.
Do you find these scenarios outlandish? The imagination of a crazed mind?A recipe for chaos?Only too plausible?
All of the above.
Mr Cameron is not the sharpest pencil in the box let alone the shrewdest PM in British history.
But one would have thought that before commiting to a referendum on such a vital economic issue he would have been cognisant of Harold Macmillan's famous aphorism when asked what he feared most:
"Events dear boy,events"
Cameron promised his back benchers a referendum on the EU in order to postpone a clash within his own ruling Tory Party over the power of Brussels.
He got Syria,Isis and drowning,desperate refugees.All added to a loss of control of East European economic migration.
He got a referendum on Immigration.
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