LETTER: The people deserve to have a say

I read with interest on your website a recent letter from Craig Jackson (Spalding Voice, 03/10/2018) about the so-called Brexit of the UK from the EU.

He seems to imply that such a decision could not be reversed as it will stop people voting again.

But isn’t the whole point of a democracy that the people always get to vote again and any decision can be reversed? Even leading Brexiter David Davis said as much.

This is the key idea that underpins the sovereignty of Parliament – that no Parliament or vote can bind a future one. Otherwise you would get into a situation like in some dictatorships where a leader, or party, declares that they are now in power ‘for life’ and there can be no challenges or changes of direction from now on.

Often those regimes collapse because no successful country can be run like that forever! A lesson for Brexit there no doubt!

It is also true in the ‘real world’ beyond politics.

Imagine someone goes for a job interview and talks a big game about all they’ve done and how great they will be for the company.

Then the employer takes it on trust and appoints them, but it turns out to be a load of hot air, or even lies, and the person doesn’t deliver.

In most cases you’d have a probation period after which the employer would call the person back and either give them more time to prove themselves, or let them go.

How else could things work in the real world?

In the same way the Brexiters who made loads of wild and dubious claims in the EU referendum – people like Boris Johnson, David Davis and Liam Fox, have been given every chance to deliver and prove they were right and honest in what they promised.

But they failed and instead gone back to blaming everyone else as such people always do.

The truth is that Brexit is failing because it was a bad idea in June 2016 and is an even worse one now with all that is going on in the world.

The point about democracy is not that you keep on voting until you get the right answer, but that even when you get what some may think is the right answer, you still keep on voting!

The alternative is the death of democracy.

The people deserve a chance to have a say on whatever deal if any comes out of the whole Brexit fiasco!

O Sykes
Liverpool (NB Mr Jackson not London!)