In order to have democracy we must restrict democracy

A short post. Perhaps.

A few weeks ago, an online petition was launched into whether there should be a referendum on the deal that the Government "secures" from the EU, and in time raised the 100,000 signatures which should have ensured it was debated in Parliament.

But the person who started the petition today received notification from the Government that the petition had been rejected stating, bluntly, that there had been a referendum into Britain leaving the EU, leaving had won, and now the Government was going to carry this out, there would be no remaining in the EU direct or by a back door.

This raises the question of what a mandate is, and whether the referendum is a one shot, one deal event that the Government clearly thinks it is. In a democracy, in Britain, the electorate gets to choose a government, and then five years later, decides whether they made the right choice before and can either vote for the ruling party again or vote them out of office. The is democracy in action, the electorate, the population, being able to change its mind.

This is why Brexiteers and May have repeatedly said that they are enacting the mandate from the people. This stifles not only democracy, but also debate, that anyone standing in the way of the process of leaving is a saboteur or traitor. And this line is spewed out on an almost daily basis.

On this I will point out the lies that the Leave campaign was built on, the £350 million a week to the EU lie, that Boris and the rest use semantics to disown. There is also the issue that legally, there was no compulsion on the Government to act on what was such a narrow victory. Politically, it was unavoidable. There could have been a quorum percentage added to the act that allowed the referendum to take place, say 60%, such a vote would be essential in what was such a major change. But all that is moot; the government has painted itself into a corner domestically and with the EU itself, acting either to leave or stay is going to be disastrous politically or economically.

IN a perfect world, with competent politicians acting as a team towards a shared goal, this would be a massive task. But with the Ministers of State in public disagreement, and a leader so weak she can do nothing to stop them, and no clear goal where they want to lead the country, there is little chance of anything but a disaster. And in the other political corner, Uncle Jeremy said this week he wanted to "save" Brexit, like the capatain of a rescue ship ploughing through survivors of a ship sinking in order to save the iceberg.

There is no real hope at the moment.