Marx my words…

Like many people, I have always enjoyed the witticisms of Groucho Marx. When he is philandering with the statuesque lady who was in many of his films, she espies her husband coming and says: “Quick! Duck behind the sofa.”

Marx disappears offscreen and, as husband comes centre-stage, he reappears, saying: “There’s no duck behind the sofa!”

In just the same way the Labour Party, which is courting the Remainer camp who lost the EU referendum and the SNP who lost the independence referendum, both want a re-run to get a different result. They have all sorts of imaginative reasons why they should be allowed a second chance: People didn’t know the facts. They were lied to. They had the gall to spend a fraction of the money the state threw into trying to convince Joe Public that they were right – and they still lost. They therefore cry, “It’s democracy!”

The idea is that if you hold a referendum on a subject and lose it is only democratic to have another one. The concept that the referendum was held to decide the outcome of a binary debate is simply discarded like an overcoat when the sun comes out. This might be amusing in the world of the cinema, but in the real world it is wholly unacceptable.

If either party won their referendum, by how ever small

a margin, then have no doubt that that result would be set in stone.

As Groucho said: “Those are my principles and if you don’t like them… well, I have others.”

Does art imitate life, or is it now the other way round?

ANDREW H N GRAY Craiglea Drive, Edinburgh