I need to inform you of my general disgust at
the behaviour of a significant number of MPs in the recent past. On the 23rd June 2016 voters were
asked:
“Should the United Kingdom remain a member
of the European Union or leave the European Union?”
Around 17.4
million people voted to leave with 16.1 million voting to remain a member of
the EU. Voters were not asked if they
wanted to leave with or without a deal, consequently
no MP can assert that people who voted to leave actually prefer to leave with,
or without a deal.
Please do not
adopt an attitude on behalf of voters with respect to any mechanism of leaving
the EU.
Prior to and
after the Referendum, supporters of remain made a lot of noise about how
damaging it would be to leave. Their cataclysmic
predictions made prior to the Referendum failed to materialise after the
Referendum and the same people are shouting loudly about the next apocalypse awaiting the UK after leaving the EU with no-deal.
As before, these predictions are over-exaggerated and designed to scare
people (including yourself) into avoiding a no-deal exit; when the ultimate intention is
to prevent the UK from leaving at all.
Your
responsibility as an MP is to implement the direct, democratic result of the Referendum, which is for the UK to leave the EU.
You should not be influenced by what is effectively
propaganda (Project Fear) designed to reverse the result of the Referendum.
You do not have
a mandate to modify the Referendum result by insisting that the only way the UK
should leave the EU is via a deal.
Your
constituents are not your mandate, because the result of over 33 million votes vastly
supersedes your constituents. This is a
national issue, not a local one.
The Government negotiated
an exit agreement with the EU, which MPs have rejected multiple times causing
the resignation of the Prime Minister.
What does this tell us?
What does this tell us?
It tells us three things (amongst others):
- The EU’s current requirements for an exit agreement were not acceptable to a majority of MPs.
- Re-negotiation of the contentious issues in the draft exit agreement is unlikely to be successful, but a final effort is warranted. Multiple efforts are not.
- MPs who, for whatever reason, work to prevent a no-deal exit are actually preventing the Government from implementing the democratic result of the Referendum. This is almost akin to a coup, whereby a Government is prevented from undertaking its legal, democratic powers. These MPs have not provided any positive resolutions in order to achieve a negotiated exit, primarily because they personally do not want to leave the EU.
As you are
probably aware the majority of MPs who voted in the Referendum voted for
remain, contrary to the result from all 33 million voters.
After the Referendum, a majority of all MPs
confirmed they support the result of the vote and therefore would support the
Government in delivering the exit from the EU.
We now know
that this was lip-service and a majority of MPs have completely forgotten their
democratic responsibility to voters and to the Government. The new, young (inexperienced?) and apparently
naive leader of the Liberal Democrats is openly acting in an anti-democratic
manner by promoting the opposite of the Referendum result, whilst dressing this up as being democratic!
And you wonder why people have such low
regard for politicians?
If you are a
member of the Government and have voted against your own Party in order to
prevent a no-deal exit; you are also acting anti-democratically by delaying or
(the most-likely intention) preventing the UK’s exit from the EU.
Therefore, you are no longer fit to be a member
of the Government or your party.
If you cannot understand that a direct mandate
from 17.4 million people over-rides your own personal beliefs, then you should
not be an MP.
De-selection of these
anti-democratic MPs is the bare minimum, so that others with a proper
understanding of their responsibility to
the country (not themselves or some alternative ideology), plus proper
allegiance to governing; can come forward.
There is no valid explanation, or excuse, for
preventing a Government implementing the direct mandate from 17.4 million
people.
Your own
personal beliefs are subservient to the mandate to leave the EU; please do not
impose your personal beliefs in Parliament in the mistaken understanding you
are being democratic; you are not.
Please ensure
you support your country first and foremost by working to implement the democratic
vote to leave the EU in whatever form the Government is able to establish.
If you cannot
support the Government in implementing the mandate to leave (with no conditions
attached) and feel you have to oppose this, then you no longer respect the majority of voters in this country and you
should resign as an MP.
Democracy cannot work.
ReplyDeleteDear Jeremy
ReplyDeleteThe fast economic and social progress in the last 50 years was done mainly by largely populated countries or Unions, such as China and India. No country can afford to be small, like Iraq and Syria and it is best to be large like Iran and North Korea or part of a Union like the European Union.
The statistical intellectual distribution graph of every nation is uni-modal, hence the well informed, thinking and intellectual elite portion of the population will always be a minority.
Now that people of the UK are aware that other large and small nations used their assets in the UK media and IT tools to influence and agitate the prejudices of the ill informed majority. It is obvious to to millions of UK voters that the ill-informed majority have made a terrible mistake, and as the ill informed majority is now relatively better informed through the three years debate a second referendum is overdue.
As a matter of principle I would never elect someone who changed his name to BORIS, who is impressed by someone who went to more than one college to get an MBA, married an IVANA then MELAINA and named his daughter IVANKA and married her to a KUSHNER. Don't you suspect that there is something wrong for God's sake.
Hi Jeremy, your lengthy letter repeats many of the (now standard) comments within the media. However, consider the following:
ReplyDeletei) MPs are not 'delegates' they are 'Representatives'. They are elected to do what THEY feel is best for their constituents. If their constituents don't like what they do, then they can vote them out next time. MPs also have access to considerably more data and information than almost all their constituents, and hence are much better placed to take a view on most issues. As a result of the above, MPs are very much better placed to take a view on the pros and cons of any complex issue. That's what they are elected for!
ii) The Referendum was won on a 52/48 majority. You would get that by tossing a coin 100 times! That is not the basis for a mandate. Most referenda around the world require at least 60% (mostly 70%) in order to change any major issue. On a related issue, it is really pointless to ask the 'man-in-the-street' what he thinks is right for the country on such a complex issue. That's like going to the doctor and then telling him what medicine you want! There are numerous examples of people in strong Labour constituencies telling the media that they only voted 'Leave' because David Cameron wanted 'Remain'! Just because your kid wants to put his hands in the fire, you still don't let him!
In short, I am not saying that there should never be a referendum, but it would need to be on a simple 'moral' issue (like 'Do we bring back hanging?') but not on such a complex, commercial and economic issue such as Leave/Remain. That is exactly the type of issue that MPs should be deciding on. Do you really believe that a Miner or road sweeper (or even a Geologist!) has access to all the data required to make such a life-changing decision as leaving the EU. Clearly NO! (although we all know much more now than we did at the time of the referendum!
In short, I'm not the greatest fan of the EU, but in my view, and on balance, the UK is better off IN than OUT. But that's just my poorly informed view. On this I'd very much prefer to leave it to MPs (but preferably not a compulsive liar such as Boris!).
All the best,
Jim