The Democratic Shackles We Need To Throw Off

We are continually reminded by Brexiters that "Britain definitively voted Leave" last June (Sunday Telegraph 'leader' today) and that to try and stop Brexit would be "undemocratic".

Both are wrong.  The vote was 52;48, and so prone to Leave support dropping below 50% over the course of the exit negotiations.  For this reason alone, the bar should have been set much higher, ideally at least 50% of eligible voters, not 50% of votes cast.

No wonder Brexiters don't want the chance of a second vote.  Their excuse is to say the 2016 vote was democratic, and to reverse it wouldn't be democratic.

Quite the opposite.  The true democratic process would have been to have set regular review events (Go / Nogo as discussed here), whether a referendum or two, or scheduled votes in Parliament.

The LibDems idea of a referendum at the end of the negotiation is too late, given how the economy is already getting damaged.

The main parties are being chicken about challenging last year's Leave vote.  They are shackled by the diea that such a challenge would be undemocratic, But if you realise it was only a 'starting gun', more robust challenge to Brexit becomes possible, and indeed "democratic".

Repeat after me "The 2016 Leave vote was only a starting gun", "The 2016 Leave vote was only a starting gun".  Only if Brexit still makes sense should we carry on.Otherwise it's #StopBrexit.