(From New Statesman)
The fiasco of the Brexit process is not only down to Theresa May’s ineptitude as PM and the irreconcilable aspirations of the Brexit dream.
Ever since the referendum in 2016, the ugly we-won, get-over-it triumphalism of the Brexiters has been their, and everyone else’s, undoing. Constantly trumpeting their 52% victory as if it had been a landslide – “the British people have decided!” – their definition of democracy has been throughout that it exists only to serve their inchoate and incoherent interests, with no regard for anyone else.
The European Union and some of the Remain camp have been no better. The flagrant disregard for legitimate concerns about how the EU is run and the consequences of unregulated one-way immigration handed the Brexiters their “victory”.
The democratic majority principle means we must leave the EU, but the only way to avoid years of festering discontent and humiliation lies in understanding what democracy really means: consensus and compromise. The reality of true democracy is that no one gets exactly what they want and we must settle for something we can all live with, at least until the next democratic vote. That’s the whole point. If we can wrest at least that from this mess, all will not be lost.
Guy de la Bédoyère,
Grantham, Lincolnshire
