Can 5 million plus people be wrong?

As over 1 million people took to the streets of central London demanding that Brexit is cancelled, the petition calling on the Westminster Parliament to revoke Article 50 is now over 5 million signatures. It’s the biggest online petition ever seen on the official parliamentary petitions site, and it continues to attract new signatures. If you haven’t signed yet, why not? The link is here. https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/241584

In the real world of course, it doesn’t matter how many people sign the petition or who take to the streets of London in protest, it will have no more influence on changing Theresa May’s course than removing a single grain of sand from the Sahara will prevent desertification. But the fact that the petition is not going to sway a notoriously unswayable politician is not the point. The reason for signing is because silence equals complicity. It’s only by making your voice heard that you can register the fact that Brexit is not being carried out in your name. On Wednesday evening, Theresa May stood before a lectern and presumed to speak for you and for me. She has sown division and now claims consensus. She has pursued a Brexit in the interests of the Conservative party and now claims she’s acting for everyone. Speaking up means telling Theresa May that she doesn’t speak for us. Silence means that Theresa May can continue to delude herself that she is on the side of the people. Silence means you agree. Silence means you don’t care. Silence means giving Theresa May permission.

Meanwhile, let's also not forget that we’ve still got a leader of the Opposition who is as committed to Brexit as the Conservatives. He just doesn’t want to take the blame for it. Even at this late stage Corbyn is still preaching his own fantasy of a jobs first Brexit. Silence also means giving consent to Jeremy Corbyn’s deceptions, lethargy and fantasising. Silence means allowing Jeremy Corbyn to say that he’s listening, when all he’s listening to is the sound of his own voice.

Brexit is driven by populism, fuelled by nationalism and the belief that the views of those who won a popular vote can ride roughshod over all other considerations. Mrs May has spoken in decidedly populist terms, most notably in her shameful speech last Wednesday when she blamed MPs for the paralysis her own approach to Brexit has created. The reason that Brexit has become a complete cock-up is because the British state and its political leaders don’t understand, or care for, the distinction between majoritarianism (the belief that those constituting a simple majority should make the rules for all members of a group, nation, etc) and true democracy. The British state seeks majorities, not consensus. We suffer from a political system in which the winner takes all and the loser is left with nothing. The first past the post electoral system so beloved by Westminster means that a party which attains only a minority of the vote can end up with a crushing majority, and once it does, there are few effective limits on the powers of whoever is prime minister. We are in this current mess because Theresa May insists on acting as though she still commanded a majority in the House.

When majoritarianism rules the day, the majority can impose its will on the minority irrespective of how narrow that majority is. Those who are in the minority, especially those who are a permanent minority like Wales and Scotland within the UK, are doomed forever to be subject to the whims of a majority which they are powerless to influence.

True democracy means reaching consensus. It means ensuring that the views of as many as possible are taken into account. And above all it means finding means and methods of including those sections of the population which are permanent minorities. That can only be achieved with proportional representation, with a written constitution which strictly separates the powers of the legislature, the executive, and the judiciary, and which strives to attain consensus instead of crushing the minority under the heel of a parliamentary majority. In other words, it can’t be achieved within the British state the way it is. The cock-up of Brexit has highlighted the shortcomings, inadequacies and failures of the British state. It has shown us that the UK is unfit for purpose, that it is only a partial democracy. We want a political class which can be held to account, which seeks to build consensus, which looks after the interests of the entire nation and not just their own party. I'm not holding my breath but perhaps, just perhaps, the aftermath of the Brexit Cock-up might lead to changes?


Chris Riddell: Observer: 24th March 2019