It may sound terribly cliché but Britain truly is at a cliff-edge in its political history. A No Deal Brexit looms, a worn and battered Prime Minister is on her way out of the office and set to be replaced by either Boris Johnson, an English posh version of Donald Trump, or Jeremy Hunt, Britain’s current foreign minister. Both potential candidates for Prime Minister are arguably just as bad as each other and I would opine that they are both awful.
It’s been just over 3 years since the UK (well half of it) decided to leave the European Union and the referendum itself has been hailed as one of the greatest democratic expressions of the British electorate in decades. Hardly. Yes, 52% of those who voted did so for Leave but it’s not that simple nor despite being over 50%, it’s not a majority either. I’ve said in the past that the UK has not as a whole voted for Leave as much larger majorities than 52-48 voted for Remain in both Northern Ireland and Scotland. The UK is a union of countries, all with equal rights and standings within the union. When you have 2 countries of a union voting one way and 2 voting the other, then you cannot logically say that the whole of the union has voted for Leave just because the overall result across the union is 52-48 for Leave. Each country’s results must be taken individually; when you do this the result is 2 for Leave and 2 for Remain.
The above reasoning is just one of many arguments for justifying why the UK should ignore the referendum result and stay in the EU but I doubt this will happen. The more pressing issues for our democracy is how to move forward in the political climate that we are in. Parliament is at a deadlock and cannot agree on how to move forward. There isn’t even a consensus on how to break that parliamentary deadlock; some advocate a General Election and others advocate another referendum on EU membership. Others think that with a new incoming Prime Minister, they will be able to negotiate a new and better deal with the EU which can pass through Parliament (Ignore the fact the EU has clearly said they will not reopen negotiations).
Because of all this Brexit mess, countless other issues in British politics aren’t being addressed and this is leading to a lot more bigger problems than Brexit. As far as I’m concerned, the only way to take us back from this cliff edge is to have a truly proper democratic expression and proceed forward with the People’s Vote. It makes logical sense; the people’s representatives can’t find a way forward so let the decision comes back to the people.
This is the entire facade has taken a lot of the joy that living in the UK normally gives and as a result I’m even more annoyed that my automatic right to a Danish passport ended when I was 22.
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