Factually flawed
Sir, I welcome Geoffrey Botterill’s response (Banner, July 9) to my comments on the EU referendum (Banner July 2).
It is unfortunate, though, that its content is littered with his misconstruction of my comments. He also cites information in support of his opinion which is inaccurate. First, the comments he quotes from my letter do not, as suggested in his response, apply to everyone who does not share my view. Nor did I imply that only those in agreement with me are rational and fair-minded.
My comments were applied to a small minority of the remain camp who are clearly not acquainted with the concept of a democratic vote and lack the maturity and self-respect to accept their loss with dignity.
My comment ‘rational and fair-minded’ was not, as he suggests, assigned only to those in agreement with my point of view. The opposite is true. It was used to describe the vast majority of remain voters – people who held views at odds with my own in this context, but who had the decency and self-respect to accept the result of the referendum. Secondly, his statement that all referendums in the UK are ‘strictly advisory’ is factually flawed. Referendums in the UK can be either advisory or binding. Admittedly, most referendums in the UK are advisory (pre-legislative), including the EU referendum. However, the 2011 alternative voting (AV) referendum was binding (post-legislative) and the government of the day had to give effect to the majority decision of the electorate to reject AV in favour of the status quo: the first-past-the-post voting system.
On this point, it is worth noting the House of Lords constitution committee’s report on referendums and their constitutional place in the UK stated: ‘[even where a referendum was legally classed advisory] it would be difficult for parliament to ignore [an] expression of public opinion.’
This, in the reality of politics in a democracy, renders the advisory/binding distinction practically irrelevant. In practice, therefore, any government, having called a referendum, would ignore the outcome at its peril. A referendum is direct democracy in its purest form. It is, indeed, long overdue for this very small minority of remain supporters to stop throwing their toys out of the pram in the vain search for a non-existent valid reason to ignore the views of a clear majority of the UK electorate. The result of the vote will stand, the UK will leave the EU and will prosper. I hope the country of my birth, Scotland, will be part of this better and brighter future for the UK. However, if our democratic system decides we will be an independent country within the EU, I will accept the majority’s standpoint. Peter Milne, Lochranza.