Quantcast
Channel: Corticalia
Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 16

Why I’m marching today for a People’s Vote

0
0

I’m joining the march in central London today to demand a second referendum on the exit of the UK from the EU. Here are the reasons why, listed in something of a chronological order, and any one of which – to my mind – would suffice on its own.

Reason #1: The first vote was unfairly configured

People were offered a binary choice between non-binary outcomes. “Remain” is one thing – stay as we are – whereas “Leave” is many things, and we can’t do all of them. So the votes of the people who wanted one of the options were pitted against all of the votes of all the other options. Even so, that one group netted 48% of the vote, which for a multi-choice option is a remarkable consensus. Having narrowed down the Leave plan to its single outcome, we need to have a second vote to see then whether a majority still want to Leave. Maybe they will. Remainers like me will accept that (even if we don’t like it).

Reason #2: The public were subjected to a sophisticated disinformation campaign

The facts that have emerged since the vote have revealed that the public were bombarded with misleading information – lies – about many aspects of the process including the economic benefits that would accrue from leaving (there aren’t any according to multiple analyses) and how many other people also supported the Leave option (Russian disinformation flooded the social media in the final days, we now know). The Leave campaign were found to have broken the law on spending. If these things happened in another country we would shake our heads and mutter about immature democracies. The vote was not a fair one and we need another.

Reason #3: The vote was too close to call

This is a weaker reason, but 52:48 is a very narrow margin, and we don’t know what the experimental error is – if we had run the vote again the next day, would we still have the same result? We don’t really know what the variance is in this situation. In almost every similar domain the margin for irreversible change like this is 60:40 at least, and setting it at 50:50 was the most egregious miscalculation by David Cameron’s government, and one that has lasting, and in my view calamitous, consequences. We need to know that this wasn’t a blip on the day.

Reason #4: We have new information about the economic consequences of Brexit

Even leaving aside all of the above, new information has emerged about the consequences of Brexit that weren’t in the public domain before. People have begun to appreciate just how much the EU is woven into every aspect of our lives, right down to the food that arrives on our table every day. Although we give money to the EU, it is returned to us in the form of subsidies (particularly to our poorer communities), research funding and so on. Analyses suggest we get more back than we put in. People hadn’t realised this, but now that they do, they should have the opportunity to reconsider their vote.

Reason #5: We risk the breakdown of peace in Ireland

Something that was not discussed at the time of the original referendum was what would happen if the Irish voted to Remain and the Northern Irish voted to Leave, which is of course what happened. The answer is that there is no simple answer. The Good Friday Agreement, which brought peace after many terrible years of terrorism and many lives lost, is predicated on the free movement of people and goods across the border, and this has been working very well. There has not been an atrocity related to Irish sectarianism for a very long time. There is, logically, no solution to the Irish border problem. We cannot be outside the EU, with Ireland inside the EU, and not have a border. The government, when pressed on this, are of course unable to provide an answer. If we Brexit there will have to be a border, and this risks the fragile peace. Now that we know about this, the people need to be asked whether this is a risk worth taking.

Reason #5: This government is taking us down the path to a no-deal exit

It looks very much as though we are headed for a no-deal Brexit, being steered under the forceful grip of a right-wing faction of government that want us to exit at any cost. Possibly they are reflecting the will of the people, but since the people weren’t asked about this, we don’t know. We need to ask them.

These, then, are the reasons I’m marching. Of course, I’m also marching because I hope we might be able to overturn the original vote – that Brexit is not what people want – but I have no expectation of this outcome. I do, however, believe that democracy demands that we properly sample the will of the people on this profound and consequential change to their country.


Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 16

Latest Images

Trending Articles





Latest Images