Re: Parliamentary Sovereignty
@TheTick - "No, it wasn't politicians that said we would leave the EU. It was the people, and we spoke clearly."
No we the people didn't. It wasn't *the people*, it was the *electorate* and not even half of that - 17m is a lot smaller than 64.1m (the rough population of the UK). The electorate is roughly 46.5m and well over half didn't insist on change, so parliament hasn't had a clear mandate from "the people". Furthermore, many people within the electorate were excluded (EU citizens can vote in local but not national elections, so they get taxation without representation)
As others have said, sane countries make sure that mandates to change are based on very clear results (like 2/3s majority) - 52% of 72% of 73% of the population (back-of-fag-packet maths) is not a clear statement from the people.
I'll concede that against the rules of the referendum the desicion was to Leave the EU and that has to be honoured to keep any shred of credibility for democracy. But what does "Leave the EU" actually mean? Are you sure that everyone who voted Leave had the same idea of what they were voting for? All that has happened is a desicion to commence a vague re-negotiation of our EU membership. We could have our position chnage from 'member' to 'associate' with no material change in
Consider that no one actually stated which bits of the EU we would leave and which we would keep, no promises were made, not apparently even on the side of buses. There is and never was any plan that was endorsed by the vote. Many want out of the single market but that's not what Boris is saying it means. There are likely many different views of Leave voters of what they wanted when they said leave. Some wanted out of the ECHR, which isn't even part of the EU; some want to divert the gross payment from the EU to the NHS, which isn't going to happen because it was never true. Some expect us to become another Norway, but to other Leave voters that will be betrayal.
I can't believe I'm agreeing with Jeremy *unt, but that is how fucked up things are. The right and democratic thing to do is now undertake Article 50 negotiations and then have another referendum on whether to enact the deal struck with the member states. I suspect many Leave voters won't like any deal because it wont go anywhere near far enough for what they thought 'Leave' meant, while others will be worried it gets rid of things they thought wouldn't be touched. This referendum result shouldn't be seen as a mandate for Boris to just negotiate any deal he wants and then enact it without a specific endorsement for that deal from the public.