Brexit: Theresa must show us she means it
thoUgh an ugly feature of dictatorships through the ages, mass demonstrations against democracy have been mercifully rare in Britain.
Yet this weekend, tens of thousands marched through the streets of the capital, pleading with the political elite to ignore the will of the people and keep this country in the EU.
their arrogant message, delivered with an astonishing lack of self-awareness, was that the referendum would only have counted if they, the Remainers, had won.
As it was, they suggested, most voters were too stupid, deluded or ‘hate-filled’ to know what they were doing – while only europhiles were clever enough to understand the issues.
to their warped way of thinking, the result should therefore be null and void.
how sickening, but how typical, that this anti-democratic message was echoed at the weekend by tony Blair and Lord Mandelson, embodiments of the selfserving metropolitan elite, both of whom called for a rethink of the decision.
this paper does not recall either of them dismissing the will of the people as irrelevant when they swept to power in 1997 with 43.2 per cent of the vote.
Yet they are apparently happy to ignore the 51.9 per cent who backed Brexit (including long-neglected majorities in their own former constituencies), with almost 4million more votes than Mr Blair’s Labour won at its most popular.
to their shame, posturing tory Lord heseltine, Lib-Dem leader tim Farron and others across the political spectrum have made similar demands for the result to be torn up.
Meanwhile, many europhiles are plotting to water down EU withdrawal until it means membership in all but name.
Yet countries such as Australia, india and the Us are queuing up to do business with a post-Brexit Britain.
this is why it is so vital that theresa May, whom this paper backs for no 10, should offer cast-iron assurances that there will be no back-tracking on the referendum by a government led by her.
in particular, she must take every opportunity to stress that if she wins, she will veto any deal that denies us control of our borders or allows the EU to overrule Parliament or our courts. Yesterday, Michael gove and Andrea Leadsom made eloquent pleas that the next leader should be firmly committed to Brexit. if Mrs May is to win, she must lay their doubts about her to rest. But let the last word go to Lord Mandelson, who declared at the Chalke Valley history Festival: ‘Everything i believed in and committed to came to a crashing halt a week last thursday.’
the Brexit majority – and the people of Britain who yearn for a cleaner, gimmick-free, more honest style of politics – pray that, for once, he will turn out to have been telling the truth.