Betrayal of Parliamentary Democracy?
Has Brexit so-called demonstrated a betrayal of Parliamentary Democracy? Has the system which served this country for centuries outlived its usefulness?
What is abundantly clear to the United Kingdom electorate is that parliamentarians, as a group, seem to be incapable of making decisions which are in the interests of the constituents they represent.
And for all the hyperbole from senior politicians in the recent past, party leaders fail to lead by example and at least give guidance on the best direction for our country. Rather, they seek first not to give offence to radical elements in their own party; it is always, it seems, party before country.
It was party before country, of course, which led us into becoming the bad boys of Europe and has now virtually stripped this country of its global dignity. In 2016 the then Prime Minister, in an effort to silence the noisy extreme right wing of his party over the European issue (which had been festering at least since the signing of the Maastricht Treaty) decided to opt for a referendum over our continuing membership of the Union. But he did not bargain on the result.
The lid on Pandora’s box once lifted, released all the ills which could possibly be inflicted by the use of a referendum. Against a background of false arguments, prejudice and fake news, and for a myriad of reasons too numerous to set out, the country has been split down the middle: friend against friend, family against family, spouse against spouse, parent against child.
Little wonder then that members of parliament cannot agree either. Members of parliament are elected to make the very decision that in this case was put to the electorate. Modern parliamentary democracies do not work if important single issue decisions are put to the people to decide amidst a frenzy of public argument and counter argument egged on by the media.
Would we seriously suggest, for example, that the return of the death penalty for grave crimes should be the subject of a referendum? We can certainly imagine the arguments and guess the result. But politicians know that a decision which resulted in the return of the death penalty would be utterly against the values for which this country stands and against the basic right to human life which we advance. Fortunately, at present no influential faction of either of our major parties is calling for the death penalty. If they did, perhaps the situation could change.
Calling for a second Brexit referendum risks the appalling decision of calling the first one becoming a complete disaster. It risks a bitter campaign, it risks a hardening of attitudes and the outlook would be bleaker still. If the result were reversed, how would that resolve the issue? The dispute which has existed for so long would not go away.
There has been an abject failure of political leadership in this country. It is time for parliamentarians as a group, notwithstanding their political affiliations, to wrest control and take ownership of that which they should decide.
When that has been done and finally this wretched Brexit issue determined, it will be time to rethink our system of parliamentary democracy and at least place a fetter on the ability of a government to seek a referendum on a single issue.