Quote:
Originally Posted by jfman
It’s all rather depressing.
Referenda aren’t really helpful where they aren’t clearly won or lost by decisive majorities. The division in the country is huge and is unlikely to be healed regardless of the outcome.
Switzerland does hold many, but this results in shorter campaigns, less entrenched views and a more mature response to losing. Looking at the results for the last ten years in that country most are settled 60-40 or greater. A number of issues, tax, family income, have been raised in different forms many times, so ongoing results inform policy development going forward. None of the issues are as wholesale or wide-ranging as a black/white question of leaving the EU.
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Switzerland has an utterly different political culture to the UK. Referendums (not referenda, the Latin word is a verb, not a noun
) are a fundamental part of their process and the top of their government doesn’t even have a president - there’s a committee with a rotating chair.
Referendums are alien to the U.K., and we never held one before the original EU referendum. It is unfortunate that they now have clear precedent when, despite all appearances, the maturity of our own political system is in Parliament.
The one thing nobody’s talking about right now, but which I predict will define the next generation of our politics, is the opportunity Parliament has had here to exert influence. Admittedly it’s doing so when the executive is at a historic low point in its own power and competence, but I believe that once the dust has long settled on Brexit, Parliament will not easily lose its voice.