Thread by @RosChappell

Starmer: "With Labour having consented to the plebiscite it would be intellectually dishonest to say “Now it’s gone the way I don’t want, I’m not going to accept the result.”

What is dishonest is to legislate for advisory ref w/out safeguards & assessment a mandate would require

Then to deceive the electorate, telling them it is their decision - a mandate - when the law says it is not their decision, but advisory.

Then, though you're a barrister, to contradict what the law says & confirms in R (Miller) v Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union

that the plebiscite was an opinion. It followed a campaign in which feeling was manipulated, facts ridiculed, making a mockery of democracy

It was Govt's duty to assess the result together with relevant factors & Parliament's duty to debate Govt's policy, not to rubber stamp it.

This is what the democratic process should have been. It did not happen. Instead of educating the electorate, MPs went along with the false narative they had given the public:

Leave got more votes. So it won. So we're out. This without even having determined what *out* meant. .

And whatever it meant, without understanding the effect on the UK economy & geopolitics.

Nothing about the referendum is what it seems. The vote wasn't the democratic *will of the people* despite MPs still claiming it is. The ref wasn't really about leaving the EU -

It was about quelling Europhobes once & for all. Kier says he must accept the result. But MPs duty is to act in the interests of UK not to harm it. Once it emerged that any version of Brexit is more harmful than remaining, Parliament should decide to withdraw A50 & mend fences.

I don't think anyone has yet decided to leave the EU in accordance with our democratic process. The referendum wasn't the decision. And May didn't make a decision after the ref, because she said the ref WAS the decision. Nor did Parliament, for the same reason. So: #A50Challenge

Far from being democracy in action, the referendum was a travesty of democracy. That should have been apparent from the conduct of the Leave campaign anyway. Maybe the darker forces of CA also a factor. But most shocking, MPs still call it democracy rather than admit the fiasco.

It is for this reason, even though it's miles better than May & Corbyn's *done deal* pronouncement, I don't favour #FinalSay. It puts the onus back on the electorate, perpetuating the lie that it was their decision in the first place, Parliament in denial of its own responsibilty

unroll please