
An astute online comment has some wondering whether Brexit may ever happen - ScottBurson
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/06/26/an-astute-online-comment-has-many-wondering-whether-brexit-may-ever-happen/
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Pinckney
Previous discussion

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11980098](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11980098)

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barisser
Whatever your opinion on Brexit, it would be a miscarriage of democracy to
ignore the referendum's result, even if it is not strictly legally binding.

If Leave can win now, it will garner more support if the public's will is
neglected.

Also the comment takes it as a foregone conclusion that triggering Article 50
would spell the political demise of the sitting Prime Minister. Isn't this a
dubious assumption? We're seeing short-term market reactions today, but it is
a very different thing to assert that the long-term impacts are as suicidal as
is commonly believed.

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kmiroslav
Technically, sure.

Practically... it's a 52%/48% vote. Hardly a mandate. Some people say a revote
might yield an opposite result, which means the current outcome is probably
under the margin of error.

It wouldn't exactly be a miscarriage of democracy to not follow through and
see how things unfold in the next couple of years, and maybe vote again to see
if the gap widens or if our country remains split in the middle on the issue.

At any rate, this comment about the situation is frighteningly deep and
chilling.

~~~
jimktrains2
Is there a margin of error with a vote like this? Isn't it a direct count of
people who want their opinion known? It isn't sampling and trying to figure
out what everyone wants.

~~~
ianai
I don't know about 'error' but there's definitely room for valid decision
changes. You can take most things back within a grace period after signing the
dotted line, after all.

~~~
jimktrains2
But that isn't what this measured. Like how the US census is suppose to be an
exact count of everyone on April 1; it may change due to births and deaths,
but on that day (at some time) it is suppose to be exact.

A vote is an exact count of the will of the people at a given time. There is
no error. People can change their minds, but that isn't what the vote
represent. That is, a vote is what people who chose to vote said they wanted,
not a probabilist representation of what the people as a whole want.

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thrden
In all this backlash, I wonder if the people who have come out strongly
remain, realize that they are trying to help massive corporations subvert a
democratic referendum. Its my understanding that the people who are most
strongly for remain, fits nicely within the demographic that defines itself as
progressive, whose policy choices take an often anti-corporate form.

~~~
pyre
Are you saying that the only way for someone to be a "progressive" is to
blindly vote on the opposite of whatever "corporations" want? That's a rather
"wild" definition of _progressive._

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Aelinsaar
The smart political calculation is probably to delay, delay, delay, then hold
another vote that won't pass and move on with life. Unless they've totally
given up on keeping Scotland in the UK I guess.

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wsc981
I understand that in many of the areas that voted in favour of Brexit, most
people vote for Labour. I would think that makes it more likely for Labour to
win next elections? In that case Boris Johnson would be out of the picture
regardless.

See:
[https://twitter.com/goodwinmj/status/746979915896070144](https://twitter.com/goodwinmj/status/746979915896070144)

~~~
internaut
I think, no offense to you personally, but many people here don't quite grasp
how drastically the frame has shifted.

There may not be a Labour political party by next elections. Labour is
disintegrating as we discuss this.

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mabbo
This is exactly why the rest of the EU is pushing so hard for the UK to leave
soon. "Put up or shut up", basically.

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onewaystreet
> The Conservative party election that Cameron triggered will now have one
> question looming over it: will you, if elected as party leader, trigger the
> notice under Article 50? Who will want to have the responsibility of all
> those ramifications and consequences on his/her head and shoulders?

This comment ignores ideology. For diehard anti-eu supporters triggering
Article 50 isn't some grave decision. They don't care about the ramifications
and consequences (or more distinctly, they don't agree that they will be bad).
Maybe Boris and Farage really didn't want to win, but that doesn't really
matter, they did and their party will force them to follow through on it.

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altern8tif
If you are given the responsibility to vote (or to lead a campaign), you
should be willing to accept the consequences of the result wholeheartedly.

If Boris Johnson or whichever leader of the "Leave" movement replaces Cameron,
they need to trigger Article 50 (and accept whatever consequences that arise
from the exit). Failure of which will cast doubt on their conviction for
leaving the EU. This will cast a pall over their time in office.

Cameron's move to resign is a shrewd and calculated one. While he is already
culpable for calling the referendum in the first place, he is placing the
responsibility of triggering Article 50 on the people who so fervently called
for it.

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billyjobob
Brits have a long* history of democracy and hold it as rather important. If
article 50 hasn't been invoked by 5th November there will be riots on the
streets.

* not really that long, but longer than most

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raspasov
That's smart. By resigning, Cameron effectively scheduled a second referendum
on the issue, aka the next election.

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sbmassey
His resignation does not trigger an election, if that is what you meant, but
the selection of a new prime minister by the Conservatives.

~~~
raspasov
Thank you for the clarification.

