Brexit Revisited

I still hold to my comments published in my first Brexit post (see: https://oldandireland.blogspot.com/2018/11/brexit-dirty-word-in-any-european.html).  But still the debacle rolls on.  Frankly, nearly 3 years on from the referendum, the whole shambles is becoming downright embarrassing.  I have used the picture below on my first post, but it is worth repeating.

 

 

So a few more points.

1.  Good old Teresa is still sticking fast to her no second vote stance, despite the current shambles.  I know that a small majority voted leave, but really, how much worse is it to be governed by Brussels than by the current occupants of Westminster, especially after they have proved themselves so incapable of running anything over the last few years?  Here in good old ‘Norn Iron’, we have the additional joy of having politicians that have been absent from Stormont for years but who are still getting paid!  It’s nice to know that all the important issues they are supposed to deal with are such a priority for them.
    
2. A quick subtraction on the figures given on the BBC and pictured above, shows that the majority in the referendum was 1,269,501.  Half that number is 634,751 (rounded up), so if 634, 752 people changed their minds the whole leave decision would change too, although obviously such a small majority should not be considered enough to change anything!. Only a huge majority on either side will be enough to settle this crazy matter.  I mentioned in the last piece that there was a huge amount of complacency during the lead up to the vote, especially on the remain side, and that a lot of misinformation and downright lies (on both sides) has come to light since then.  The size of the UK electorate has grown by around 300,000 people since the EU referendum, probably the largest part of this number being complacent people who did not think they needed to bother, but now find otherwise.  With this newly enlarged electoral register, a swing of just 1.36% of the total of registered voters would be enough to change the leave vote.  That is a very small change!
    
3. Add to the above the fact that older people were both more likely to vote, and more likely to vote leave, and 3 years on that situation will have changed.  Some of those older people will have dropped off the voter register, while 3 years’ worth of younger people will have joined it. 
    
4. We have Westminster elections every four or five years or sometimes earlier when governments manage to fall apart.  Why then can we not have a second vote on Europe when the government is falling apart in such a spectacular fashion over this very issue?  We are told that a second vote would be undemocratic, but given the time that has passed I personally think it should be done.