21st Century Wire says…
How supportive with Nigel Farage be now the shoe is on the other foot?
The UK voted to leave the EU by 52% to 48% in Thursday’s referendum but the majority of voters in London, Scotland and Northern Ireland backed Remain.
Now, a petition has been launched that is calling for a second referendum stating:
“If the remain or leave vote is less than 60% based a turnout less than 75% there should be another referendum.”
At the time of writing, the petition has gathered well over 1.5 million signatures – far beyond the threshold of 100,000 required for parliamentary debate.
Thursday saw a 72.2% turnout, significantly higher than the 66.1% turnout at last year’s general election, but not up to the 75% the petition writer wants.
A House of Commons spokeswoman said the petition site temporarily went down following “exceptionally high volumes of simultaneous users on a single petition, significantly higher than on any previous occasion”.
UKIP leader Nigel Farage, the main figure head of the ‘leave campaign’, had previously said that a result to ‘remain’ winning by 52% to 48% would mean:
“Unfinished business by a long way.”
It will be interesting to see whether or not Farage will be supportive of an attempt to achieve a greater majority from a higher turn out of voters now that the shoe is on the other foot. Should it not also be ‘unfinished business’ for an opposite result?
Here is the great problem of democracy: when is a majority really a majority? How do we account for the views of those who are not in the majority, no matter how small or large that majority, or minority, may be?
As Winston Churchill once pondered:
“It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried.”
Nothing is perfect.
Should a second referendum be sought to achieve a greater majority?
READ MORE BREXIT NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire BREXIT Files
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