Letter: Referendums? Two Wrongs Don’t Make a Right

Published on: 29 Aug, 2018
Updated on: 29 Aug, 2018

John Perkins

In response to: Referendums Are Not the Kind of Democracy Our Country Needs

Two wrongs don’t make a right: if it was wrong to hold one referendum then a second must also be wrong. Besides which, Parliament voted overwhelmingly to pass an Act making the referendum legal, the prime minister promised that the government would abide by the result, even though it was non-binding. Parliament again voted overwhelmingly to pass an Act enabling the new PM to keep that promise.

Representative democracy has produced some “representatives” so arrogant they refuse to consider the views of even those who voted for them. The most obvious example locally is the apparent determination of GBC to build over the green belt despite the headline claim made by Conservatives in 2015 that “Greenbelt Is Safe With Us” and in the face of huge opposition.

It’s patronising and wrong to claim that only MPs are capable of making constitutional decisions. Some of them are too dim, uninformed and venal to make any decision; they simply obey Party orders.

But there’s also the House of Lords, which is full of people nobody gets to vote for. Who do they represent? The wisdom of crowds is far more reliable.

As for those in the midst of the action: that would be Junker, Barnier and Selmayr, none of whom represent the interests of people here, or possibly anywhere else.

If Guildford merits special consideration then so must the 264 regions (68.9%) that voted Leave.