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Originally Posted by Sephiroth
I see all the usual suspects sniping from the sidelines here.
Fact is that the Referendum delivered a LEAVE result. It looks like TM is going to respect that vote one way or the other.
That Parliament is "Remainy" just goes to show how undemocratic they are and as for the ERG, they need to withdraw their horns and do everything to assist the correct democratic outcome. LEAVE.
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That's not how our Representative Democracy works - we elect an MP to represent the Constituency (not just those who voted for them), but we do not have the right to mandate how they should think or vote.
Members of the House of Commons have a triple mandate - they represent all the people of their constituency, their party and the interests of the country. It is a tenet of representative democracy that MPs are not delegates for their constituents.
This means that, while the views of constituents are frequently considered, the actions of MPs are governed by their determination of the best interests of their constituency, their party and the country as a whole.
It was Edmund Burke who put it best, I think - the difference between a representative, who should take account of their constituents’ views but still use their own judgement in the legislature, and a delegate, who simple mirrors their constituents’ views. In his 1774 speech to the electors at Bristol at the conclusion of the poll that elected him he explained what would come to be known as Burkean representation:
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“It ought to be the happiness and glory of a representative to live in the strictest union, the closest correspondence, and the most unreserved communication with his constituents. Their wishes ought to have great weight with him; their opinion, high respect; their business, unremitting attention. It is his duty to sacrifice his repose, his pleasures, his satisfactions, to theirs; and above all, ever, and in all cases, to prefer their interest to his own.
But his unbiased opinion, his mature judgment, his enlightened conscience, he ought not to sacrifice to you, to any man, or to any set of men living. These he does not derive from your pleasure; no, nor from the law and the constitution. They are a trust from Providence, for the abuse of which he is deeply answerable. Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgment; and he betrays, instead of serving you, if he sacrifices it to your opinion.”
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If we are unhappy with our MP, we can de-select them.