In reply to Matthew Parris

I have in common with journalist and former MP Matthew Parris that we both voted Remain, but after that we part company.

I believe that the result of the referendum should be respected. Matthew, however, would like to stop Brexit.

His latest piece in The Times yesterday "We must march and demand to vote again," is an example.

However, he has enough intelligence to realise that simply ignoring the vote of the electorate would not be wise and that calls for any third referendum have to come from the wider electorate, not the political class.

His article concluded

"Let the marches and demonstrations be led by the many not the few. I want to hear talk of a new referendum at the post office queue, not the foyer of the Royal Opera."

This may be what Matthew is getting at, but Continuity Remain's problem is that outside London and perhaps Scotland, this is precisely what isn't happening.

In my part of the world the opposition to Brexit, what there is of it, is coming almost entirely from people who are clearly part of "the elite" or who are active in politics, mostly in the Lib/Dem and Labour parties.

In the post office queue or places where I meet people who are not part of the political class, they're thoroughly fed up with hearing about Brexit and if they mention it at all they will say something like

"We've voted, we've made the decision, why can't the politicians just get on with it and do it?"



Comments

Anonymous said…
The problem is simple - what was promised by Brexit can't be delivered - not by anyone. The closest you can get is to just crash out and throw all our treatys out of the window. The Maybot maybe doing her best but JR and Boris will soon put an end to that.
9:13 pm
Chris Whiteside said…
I have some sympathy for that - as I wrote at great length on this blog during the referendum campaign both sides talked a great deal of nonsense.

I agree that Brexit will not and cannot deliver everything its' supporters promised, though I also think it won't be as big a disaster as the Remain side made out either.

But at the end of the day either you believe in democracy or you don't. Parliament put this decision to the people and promised to implement what the voters decided. If that promise is broken it would be a hammer blow to British democracy.
9:21 pm
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