Originally posted here ;
I just wanted to lay out all the steps to how we ended up Leaving the EU:
In 2015, the Conservatives, UKIP and the Greens promised a referendum in their manifestos. The Conservatives won a majority in Parliament, and in terms of the popular vote, Tories + UKIP + Greens = 36.1% + 12.6% + 3.6% = 52.3% of the vote on a turnout of 66.4%.
Therefore having a referendum on the EU was backed by the voters both on a FPTP parliamentary basis, and on a popular vote basis.
Then parliament voted to hold the referendum by 544 – 53. Therefore holding the referendum was now the Will of Parliament, as well as the Will of the Voters.
Then we had the 2016 EU ref which delivered a Leave vote by 52% – 48%. The referendum turnout of 72% was higher than the turnout in any General Election for decades. The 17.4 million people that voted to leave the EU was a higher vote than anything in this country’s history and four million more votes than the current Theresa May government received.
Thus leaving is the Will of the People.
Then Parliament voted to trigger Article 50 by 498 to 114 MPs.
Now Leaving is the Will of Parliament as well.
Then a general election was held in 2017, after a full year of Remainers screaming that voters should be able to change their minds. Anti-Brexit parties like the SNP got hammered. Parties that promised to honour the referendum got 85% of the vote on a turnout of 68%.
Voters were signalling that Leaving was the Will of the People again.
Then we had the Withdrawal Act go through Parliament in the summer of 2018. This was an epic battle with over 1000 amendments, all designed to shape the method of departure. An amendment to remove the leaving date got defeated. An amendment to make the customs union the default if no deal could be agreed was defeated 307 – 301 (with 42 MPs not bothering to vote).
So leaving with no deal as the default on 29th March 2019 is the Will of Parliament.
As you can see there were loads of steps where both the electorate and Parliament were consulted over and over again.
If people wanted to stop the process, they could have done so at any time from the 2015 general election onwards.
For example if you thought having a referendum was wrong in principle, you could have argued that in that in the 2015 election. If you wanted a supermajority you should have argued that in the 2015 Parliamentary Act that gave permission for the referendum to be held (interestingly, it was set at 50% +1 because that was what the Scottish ref was set at – so people wanting a supermajority should have made their case during the negotiations about the Scottish ref in 2012).
Then in the 2016 ref, you could have argued your case better so your side won! 🙂
Then, if you still wanted to overturn it, you could have voted for a Remain party in the 2017 ref. Mysteriously lots of Remainers voted for arch-brexiteer Corbyn.
Finally, if you wanted to shape the leaving as a Norway deal etc, Remain MPs could have turned up to back their amendments in the Withdrawal Act in summer 2018. We are not going to remain in the customs union or have a Norway option because Parliament explicitly voted against the amendments that contained those options.
I’m not sure what Remainers are complaining about – they’ve been given plenty of opportunities to persuade both the electorate and Parliament that the EU is wonderful, and failed over and over. Time to accept reality.