Definition of democracy

DEMOCRACY, noun: a system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives.

ASSUMING we all support “democracy”, how should it work in practice? “Typically through elected representatives” is the norm. These representatives are carefully selected, first by their political parties, then by the electorate. They then get some induction into their role as MPs (or councillors).

This makes them better prepared to contribute to ‘government’; balancing the needs of all their electors (including those who did not vote for them) against the best interests of their party, their region, their country and indeed their world. It’s a sophisticated system – the least-worst one we’ve found so far

But it has its flaws. The levels of selection tend to distance the representatives from many of those they should represent.

For instance those elected are atypical in their stronger interest in involvement in the system; they tend to be more educated and eloquent, more literate, less affected by poverty than a large proportion of their constituents. They feel more able significantly to affect their own and other peoples’ lives, while many citizens feel powerless and frustrated.

These flaws led firstly to a demand for a referendum and then to a result in which almost half of the electorate rejected the attitudes, the actions and the plans of those who seemingly had failed to represent them.

Leaving aside that a constitutional change normally requires a majority greater than 51 per cent, why do I say ‘almost a half’? The 28 per cent who did not vote either did not care, which is not the same as saying they wanted to Leave. Or, like even the then Prime Minister, they mistakenly assumed the mature, tolerant British public would vote massively to Remain. Young people who are now 18 and 19 years old, were not consulted. And we now know that vast sums of money, much of it from unknown sources, were spent by a few individual businessmen on a massive publicity campaign that included falsehoods so great that even some of their keenest supporters resigned during the campaign.

This massive effort, unmatched by that of the Remainers, resulted in only a four per cent majority of those who voted.

Our government representatives now find it impossible to agree on how that result can be implemented. Opinions are passionately held on both extremes and the compromise “Deal” that has taken many months and thousands of hours to produce is acceptable to almost none of them. It was doomed because, as is clear to any objective observer, to leave the EU would be disastrous. It cannot be done without inflicting serious and long-lasting harm on us and on Europe.

We have had clearly demonstrated that ‘representative democracy’ for all its flaws is indeed a least-.worst system. Less worse than referenda.