Huw_Dawson
Member
that's just code for "we respect the people's decisions blah blah but it's all a load of bollocks really isn't it, let's pretend it never happened".
No it isn't - that's as silly as saying that the Tories won the highest percent of the public vote at the General Election, so they should have every single MP. Or maybe Labour should have been permanently placed into power in 1945 because they won over 50% of the popular vote?
Campaigning to re-enter the EU is representing the beliefs of people who want to remain in, and re-enter in the future, the EU, who deserve to have a party that is aligned with that belief. If Brexiteers want to ensure we never re-enter the EU, they should vote for parties that say "we won't re-enter the EU".
A vote, even a referendum, does not have power in perpetuity. People who want to be in the EU shouldn't just shut up because they lost a vote. That's not how a free society works. The people who lost should campaign to get the people who won to change their minds. And that's not a tall task given every warning given by what was nicknamed Operation Fear appears to be coming true - the pound devalued, huge amounts of money wiped off the stock exchange, likely rising prices in supermarkets, Scotland threatening independence, international investment fleeing the country, and the leave campaign finally admitting that their entire pro-leave campaign was based on a crock of lies that would make a cheating spouse look like a Catholic saint. People have a right to re-consider their vote.
Do the LDs accept that the referendum gave the government a mandate to leave the EU? Yes. Does that mean that this is the right thing to do for the good of the country, and that the beliefs of over 16 million people should be silenced forever? No.