The Brexit referendum was flawed

 

 

Mr Evans (from Peyia no less) has replied in the most intemperate terms to Mr Georgiou’s piece.  It is really rather tiresome and is a form of Daily Telegraph or Daily Mail paranoia; just the sort of language that you might hear expounded over a warm flat pint of beer in the Saloon Bar of the “Lame Dog Pub” in Little Rissington-under-the-Wold if indeed there is a Lame Dog Pub in that doubtless charming Cotswold village.  Aside from anything else this exhausting business about the “will of the people” is seriously flawed.

Here are some figures which might help put things in focus:

1.       UK Population at time of the EU Referendum: 65.64m = the Populace

2.       Of which Electorate with the right to vote: 46.5m = the People

3.       The Electorate voting Leave: 17.41m = the Leavers (37.44 per cent)

4.       The Electorate voting Remain: 16.14 m = the Remainers (34.71 per cent)

5.       The Electorate not voting: 12.95m = the Abstainers (27.85 per cent)

Thus: 62.56 per cent of the Electorate did not vote Leave.

The referendum result is so marginal you cannot possibly;

(a) label anyone who has concerns about leaving as a “remoaner” a tag that is really childishly insulting
(b) seriously expect that in a matter of this importance a simple “first past the post” methodology is a sensible or intelligent way of proceeding.

Suppose the vote had been just “1” in favour of either side?

That is why the referendum was flawed – had one side or the other represented a significant majority (say 20 per cent for example on the basis of an 80 per cent turn out) no-one could or would argue.

All this nonsense has its roots in Cameron’s regrettable incompetence and the far-right coterie in the Conservative Party.  I recall asking a question of – as he then was – Bill Cash – concerning John Major and Maastricht.

Instead of answering the question he ranted on for ten minutes – it felt like half an hour – on tangential matters surrounding the European question.  He and his kind quite simply hate Europe and are prepared to ruin everyone’s lives to suit their prejudices.

It is with regret that one has to conclude that he, and the others – numbering perhaps 60 or so in the Parliamentary Party – are right-wing nutters who cannot meet anyone anywhere other than on their side of the argument.

Today and very sadly we hear these people continuing their vituperative attacks on the highest court of the land; we must assume they consider that the law applies only to the little people.

Jonathan Reddaway, Nicosia

 

 

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