Letter: Brexit – Without An Election or a Referendum We Can’t Tell What the People Want

Published on: 29 Sep, 2019
Updated on: 30 Sep, 2019

From David Roberts

In response to: Brexit – I Believe A Majority Want A Deal

Malcolm Stanier’s view that a majority of people want a deal is very plausible. So too is the PM’s view that a majority just want to leave at any cost. So too is the view that a majority just want the Brexit pain to end – and that the quickest way to do that is simply to revoke our Article 50 letter.

Any of these views may be right or wrong; but without an election or a referendum, we just don’t know. We all have our personal opinions, but anyone claiming to know “the will of the people” is either psychic or a fake.

After more than three years, the 2016 referendum result is of diminishing relevance. About two million people on the electoral roll then are now dead. About 1.5 million adults were too young to vote then but can now. Some highly affected groups (16-18 year-olds, long-term EU residents in the UK and UK residents in the EU) had no vote then but might next time. Many people who did vote in 2016 have presumably changed their minds, in both directions. And the MPs we elected in 2017, well after the referendum, do not at all reflect the 52:48% referendum split.

So the question “What does the majority want?” is unfathomable. A new vote would nail the matter once and for all. No government without a parliamentary majority should be allowed to pre-empt that or foreclose any options in the meantime.

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