So back to normal tomorrow ? No Chance !!

So the EU Referendum is now being voted on - and we will see the result tomorrow morning.  Hopefully "Remain" but we shall see.

But what will happen next ?

Whatever the result is tomorrow - I predict that UK parliamentary democracy has had a jolt from which it will never recover.  Various MP's and pundits with absolutely no public mandate have been dominating the TV screens and live debates. The Party system is completely compromised and if we were to have a "Leave" decision all the significant party's will be on the wrong side. 

Where did Boris Johnston and Michael Gove get their authority from - who chose them and gave them a mandate?  Nobody !!  David Cameron as PM seemed to have the support of Conservative MPs for his "remain" stance - but "remain" certainly wasn't on the Conservative Manifesto (on which they were elected).   Nigel Farage made a lot of noise and created a lot of controversy - He completely failed to be elected as an MP at the last election and his party only has one MP.  He has no authority, no mandate and he should have no voice.

Alan Johnston and Hilary Benn from Labour provided some of the most compelling rhetoric of the campaign - but the Labour leadership seemed to be very distant from their membership and Jeremy Corbyn was lacklustre to say the least.  There seemed to be no recognition that there are a lot of "Leave" voters who were traditional Labour supporters

If the vote is "Leave" David Cameron would need to resign (immediately)

If we get a "Remain" Vote ?

David Cameron could "remain" as Prime Minister but only if the Conservative Party adopted a manifesto of "Remain in a reformed EU" became engaged in Europe and adopted strategies for the fundamental reform of the EU. We need to step up to our role as the second largest member of the EU. The Cabinet would also need to be reshuffled so that it only contained pro-EU ministers.

The way that we elect MPs in this country would need to be reformed and the parliamentary Party system restructured.  This referendum clearly shows that we have a huge Democratic Deficit in the UK and also in Europe

In Conclusion

The only way that the UK Government can recover from either a "remain" or "leave" decision is to hold an immediate General Election

And while we are at it how about some "Digital Democracy"  - when our elected leaders do not respect a public mandate we should be able to vote ourselves.

Lets see what happens

Written by

Richard Wishart