October 17, 2018

What does a democratic Brexit look like?

located:	United Kingdom
editor:	Shira Jeczmien

As yet another crucial meeting on a Brexit deal collapsed on Sunday, October 14, and that there are serious remaining "issues over the Irish border question” as reported by the Guardian’s Brussels bureau chief Daniel Boffey, the British people are becoming desperate to regain a grip over a looming no deal Brexit that is, quite frankly, disastrous.

In a hopeful bid to demonstrate the growing number of British citizens who deeply oppose the direction their nation is heading in, while showing that many of those who voted to Leave no longer feel that what they were promised is being delivered, The Independent launched The People’s Vote campaign and Final Say petition. The petition, which currently has 865,316 signatures out of a one million target (and counting), calls for a referendum on the final outcome of Brexit. The campaign’s belief is that “after years of negotiations behind closed doors, the people must not be shut out of the final decision.” An accompanying People’s Vote march is scheduled for Saturday, October 20, with organisers expecting a larger turnout than the previous July march, where more than 100,000 people marched.

Critics of the People’s Vote, including Prime Minister Theresa May, oppose it on the premise that continuously asking people to vote on the matter until the seemingly ‘right’ answer is voted on is a breach of democracy. And because the people voted for Brexit, a Brexit it will be – under any condition. However more than two years later it has become apparent that the Leave campaign breached the rules of budgeting while anchoring the premise of its ideology on falsified premises.

It seems that in lieu of a disqualification of the referendum results altogether following the mounting evidence of breaches together with a current leadership that is exhibiting no signs of reasonable progress, a final people’s vote on the deal's conditions is the only way forward.

The Labour party is currently pushing for parliament to legislate for another referendum, with a growing number of MPs in support. As Labour MP Chuka Umunna told the Independent, “a majority of our members and our voters want to see a people’s vote,” adding that “we need a few Tory rebels to vote for this proposition… Sarah Wollaston, Anna Soubry, Dominic Grieve and a number of other conservative MPs have said that they think there should be a people’s vote.”

Shortly after the negotiations hit yet another cul-de-sac on Sunday, Chuka Umunna released a further statement saying, “Every snippet and semi-substantiated rumour that emerges about a prospective ‘deal’ only serves to confirm it will be bad for the British people, for British jobs and nothing like the Brexit which was promised.” We are now well aware of the consequences a no deal Brexit promises; detrimental effects that reach far beyond the isle itself. Considering all that the British people know today that they did not know two and a half years ago, a final say by the people, for the people, is perhaps the most democratic move this entire fiasco will exhibit to date.

To read more on Brexit, take a look at our piece on Brexit racism.

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A final say by the people, for the people, is perhaps the most democratic move this entire fiasco will exhibit to date.

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