In 1979 Scotland voted FOR Devolution by 51.62%, turnout was 63.72%. In 1997 Wales voted FOR Devolution by 50.30%, turnout was 50.22% in 2004 the North East of England voted by 77.93% NO – against an Elected Assembly for the North East, turnout was 47.71% In 2011 The Country voted NO to the Alternative Vote System by 67.90%, turnout was 42.20%. In all the above referendums no one, I repeat no one, asked for a rerun it was called democracy and the will of the people had to be respected and implemented.
At the EU referendum, sorry I meant Peoples Vote, on 23rd June 2016 County Durham people voted 59.35% to Leave, turnout was 68.7%. Nationally it was 51.95% Leave, turnout was 72.21%.
In the 2017 General Election both the Tories and Labour promised in their manifestos to respect the EU Referendum result plus Ukip representing 82.20% of the vote with a turnout of 68.7%. 27,142,411 out of 32,181,756 people voted for parties that promised to deliver Brexit.
Even our MP Phil Wilson, in his now infamous anti Corbyn letter in the 2017 General Election, stated “I put local people and local concerns first, from backing Brexit, etc…”
Many people who voted remain not only accepted the majority decision but recognise the danger to our system of democracy of not doing so. They would not necessarily vote remain in a second referendum precisely because it would undermine democracy and the rule of law.
There have been 20 General Elections in Britain since 1945. These resulted in 11 Conservative led governments and 9 Labour ones. Twice the party with the most votes did not win the most seats.
No single party has ever received more than a 50% share of the votes. No single party has ever received more than 40% of the total electorate. In 11 of the 20 elections, the Conservative vote majority over Labour or the Labour vote majority over Conservative, was smaller than the Leave majority over Remain in the 2016 referendum.
On no occasion since 1945 has there been a widespread campaign to rubbish any general election result on the basis that the support for the party with the most parliamentary seats was insufficient to justify that party forming a government.
If there can be two referendums, why leave it at that, why not make it the best of three or five. To justify the gamble, Remain would have to win convincingly – with a bigger majority than they lost by in 2016, and on a bigger turnout.
Some Remainers would like us to continue having referendums until they get the result they want. But if they got the result they want, why would we not demand further referendums again, till we got what we want.
Those Remoaners who say that 17.4 million people did not know what they were voting for, in a straight in or out referendum, as David Cameron made absolutely clear on National Television and the government in its £9 million booklets to every household, no ifs no buts, not subject to deals, just in or out; must also accept that the 16.1 million Remain Voters didn’t have a clue either. Accept democracy or go and live in “socialist Venezuela or a few other tinpot dictatorships still around. If you do not respect democracy and the rule of law, how can you expect others to respect you.
Arun M Chandran
