Here’s a cut and paste of an e-mail that just turned up in my mail box. It’s worth copying just to show how deep the current problems are in the UK. In reading it must be remembered that a referendum is not binding in the UK. What’s here is the policy of one Government or even one part of one Government.
Dear ,
The Government has responded to the petition you signed – “Revoke Art.50 if there is no Brexit plan by the 25 of February”.
Government responded: The Government’s policy is not to revoke Article 50. Instead, we continue to work with Parliament to deliver a deal that ensures we leave the European Union, as planned, on March 29th. Revoking Article 50 would not respect the vote of the British people in the 2016 referendum.
Almost three quarters of the electorate took part in the referendum and 17.4 million people voted to leave the European Union. This is the highest number of votes cast for anything in UK electoral history and the biggest democratic mandate for a course of action ever directed at any UK Government. This result was then overwhelmingly confirmed by Parliament, who voted with clear and convincing majorities in both of its Houses for the European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Act. Then, in the 2017 General Election, over 80% of people then also voted for parties committing to respect the result of the referendum and it was the stated policy of both major parties that the decision of the people would be respected.
This Government has therefore been given a clear mandate to implement the will expressed by the electorate in the referendum, and to revoke Article 50 would undermine that mandate. As it is the responsibility of this Government to deliver the exit that people voted for, and as Parliament is clear that it does not wish to deliver a ‘no deal’, we must secure a deal. However, the Government recognises the views expressed by the House that it cannot support the deal as it currently is, and we are now confident that a deal with changes to the backstop, combined with measures to address concerns over Parliament’s role in the negotiation of the future relationship and commitments on workers’ rights will secure the majority needed in the House to leave the EU with a deal.
The Prime Minister has therefore continued to work with Members across the House to deliver on the decision that the British people took in June 2016 and she will go back to Brussels to secure a deal this House can support.
Department for Exiting the European Union
To comment:
In reference to the words; “biggest democratic mandate” and “given a clear mandate” this is not the case. A mandate comes from the majority and, as we all know the majority by which the Leave vote won the referendum was a relatively small one.
The term; “respect the result of the referendum” has become meaningless since it has been used to mean more than 101 different things to millions of people across Britain. It’s not known what the result of the referendum indicated in any detail since there was no plan for the outcome.
The reason that Art. 50 may not be revoked is said to be that this week the UK’s PM will go back to the EU in Brussels and secure a deal the UK Parliament can support. The chance of this outcome being secured in the last 5 weeks that have to run on the clock is tiny. The political balances within the UK Parliament favour those who wish to see the UK crash out of the EU without a deal.
Finally, the Goverement department making this public statement of policy was created for one purpose. It would be strange if it answered differently from that above given such a bias.
John Vincent 