Cards on the table, I am in favour of parliamentary democracy, in that we elect representatives to carry out decisions on our behalf. If we don’t like what they have done, we can vote them out. This is a good system for a number of reasons. One is that the alternative method, a referendum is costly and time-consuming and in some instances inappropriate. Another is that referenda make binary decisions on issues that are extremely complex, like our EU membership. The referendum on 23 June 2016 showed a small but significant majority of those who voted want to leave the EU. Fair enough, we have to accept that. But far from clearing the air, our impending Brexit has made things more complex than ever.
Leaving the EU means different things to different people. Most of us accept that leaving the EU is what will happen. That’s a given. When we were asked to vote in a referendum which, let’s never forget, was a fateful episode of Tory party management by David Cameron and nothing to do with “allowing the people to decide”.
We shall have to live with the result for decades to come, a result which we will soon discover was an act of epic self-harm by the electorate. It’s the type of Brexit which follows that matter. I do not believe many people voted to be worse off. I know some did because the polls show that a significant number of people were happy to accept the falling living standards Brexit would bring if it meant less migrants came to work in the UK. Others would like to remain in the single market. But we were never given these choices. What if we had? How would things have turned out then?
I reckon things would have been far easier to accept if Cameron had put a number of options on the ballot form and the public could have voted for the one they liked most. In a belated act of public service, I offer some alternative ballot form suggestions:
1. Remain. Leave things much as they are but argue for change and reform of the EU from within.
2. Leave. I hate foreigners because the Daily Mail says they are all social security scroungers and rapists, even the ones that aren’t, like the doctors, nurses and care workers who care for us when we are sick and/or old. So stop all foreigners coming here and send back the ones who are here already. As migrants are a net benefit to the economy, I am happy to pay additional taxes to fund the running of the country, including the NHS and pensions.
3. Leave. I want to make myself poorer, but more importantly I want to gamble the future of my children and grandchildren and to potentially deny them the opportunities to travel, study and work abroad that I had. So stop all freedom of movement to and from the UK in terms of work, study and leisure, introducing a system of visas.
4. Leave. I want sovereignty returned to the UK parliament unless it does things the Mail/Express/Sun, Telegraph don’t like, in which case I would like Paul Dacre and Rupert Murdoch to decide Britain’s laws.
5. Leave. For starters, I would like the pound to reduce in value against the dollar and the Euro by, say, 20% in order to make imports dearer, to increase prices of just about everything in order to be worse off, just so I can imagine how things will be when we leave the EU and are permanently worse off. Hopefully, Britain will become such a horrible place to live all those migrants will no longer want to come here.
6. Leave. I trust principled politicians like Boris Johnson, David Davis and Liam Fox to negotiate a Brexit deal that will benefit UK citizens and don’t want our elected politicians having any say in the form of Brexit we take.
I know that some of these options can overlap a bit, so how about being able to choose two or three options? It’s not perfect, I know because you might want to stop migrants coming here but you don’t want to pay extra taxes when they don’t, but look, it’s not a perfect world, so it’s one or the other.
Nigel Farage, who not long ago railed about the need for power to be returned under British sovereignty (not that it ever left us in the first place) now threatens rioting on the streets if, er, power is returned under British sovereignty. Confused? Well, what the hell did you think would happen following a mish-mash of a referendum that chose a certain way forward, minus any of the details that ensure it worked?
I don’t want a second EU referendum because I accept that Britain has voted to leave. I have the feeling that in a few years time when the grim reality of Brexit comes into view, and it doesn’t look anything like the way the Sun, Mail and Express promised, I wonder if everyone will feel the same?
If the government does offer us another referendum, I hope they give us a few more options.
