[BITList] Fwd: The Brexiteers could not be more wrong

[michael J Feltham]

> 
> 
> Dear Michael,
> 
> The hysterical response of the Brexiteers every time Parliament asks a difficult question is telling evidence of the weakness of their position.
> 
> They know they have made a series of promises which are not being kept. They promised that the UK would pay no exit bill to the EU, but the Government now says the Brexit bill would be £40 billion (and the NAO says that is a substantial underestimate). They said there would be no need for a hard border in Ireland but have not been able to show how that is consistent with controls on cross border trade and migration. They said that the world would queue up to sign trade deals with post-Brexit Britain, but the hard reality is that the rest of the world has other things on its mind.
> 
> One by one, as their promises are exposed to examination, the Brexiteers respond by lashing out at their tormentors. Instead of responding to the arguments and showing how their policy would make Britain better off, they accuse their questioners of bad faith and fall back on the mantra that they are the only true democrats.
> 
> They could not be more wrong.
> 
> Real democracy is a noisy, obstreperous process. It asks difficult questions and pursues answers – especially from those who prefer not to give them. It certainly does not allow MPs to justify their actions on the basis that “we have our instructions”. It makes them accountable for the consequences of their actions.
> 
> There is no issue on which this is more important than Brexit. One by one, as Brexit myth meets Brexit reality, the result is a developing car crash. What was previously a “red line” becomes a “hard fact”, and when the Prime Minister was asked at the Guildhall in March whether, in the light of her list of “hard facts”, the policy is “worth it” she avoided the question. 
> 
> The case for the People’s Vote is unanswerable. The people initiated the process, against the wishes of a big majority of MPs; it is inconceivable that the same MPs who were wrong last time should now claim the right to decide whether the deal negotiated by ministers fulfils the mandate of the referendum – and what to do if it doesn’t.
> 
> The Prime Minister has promised a “meaningful vote” at the end of the negotiations. A vote implies an open question. It could go either way. Who has the right to make that decision?
> 
> A vote to support the government’s package would be illegitimate if MPs claimed to be simply “taking instructions”. A vote to reject the government’s package would be illegitimate because it would not discharge the mandate of the referendum.
> 
> It is an impossible dilemma which can only be resolved by a People’s Vote with all the options on the table.
> 
> Please support our campaign <http://www.europeanmovement.co.uk/r?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.peoples-vote.uk%2Fcrowdfunder&e=18725e049ab241d18bc74a803808b9c9&utm_source=euromove&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=pv_supporters&n=1> to secure the People’s Vote to secure our future.
> 
>  
> Yours sincerely,
> 
> 
> 
> Stephen Dorrell
> Chair of the European Movement UK
> 
>  
> The People's Vote campaign has brought together pro-European organisations to demand a public vote on the final Brexit deal - can you support it?
> 
> 
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> 
> 
> 
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