"We did it!" - The Referendum Aftermath

By: Ben Thrussell

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Credit: Trufflepig

We did it! After months of difficult campaigning, we managed to liberate the UK from the bureaucratic nonsense of Jean Claude Juncker. If you can’t tell, I’ve spent the last four months campaigning for Vote Leave. However, there has been some developments since the result was announced, and they must be mentioned. Firstly, and probably most obviously, there has been a minor collapse in the value of the pound. Having been at a rate of £1:$1.50 at 10pm on poling day, it has since dropped to $1.37. Many have called this a catastrophic “mistake”, such as Tory MP Anna Soubry. However, it is worth mentioning that the pound was at $1.39 in mid-February this year, meaning it would be wrong to class this as little more than a minor financial panic. 

The second development we need to talk about is the petition. Since the result was announced, a petition calling for a second referendum, using different rules (minimum 75% turnout), has been set up and, at the time of writing, has over three million signatures. As far as I am concerned, this is a disgrace to democracy and freedom. Sure, the result was tight, 52-48, but it is a majority verdict. A majority decision is the whole point of holding a referendum. Many people did not agree with the Iraq War or the Lisbon Treaty (now essentially defunct in the UK), but both were passed into law against the will of many as neither was put to the public. The people who have signed this petition clearly hold a certain contempt for democracy and independence, fought for in two world wars, in Vietnam, India, the USA, South Korea, East Germany and others. The people who signed this petition need to wake up to a majority view, to a decision democratically agreed to, and they need to realise that politics is about winning and losing. 

The third, and I think the most appalling, development, comes from David Lammy, Labour MP for Tottenham. He released a statement on 25th June saying that we should “wake up” and we should “stop this madness”. An elected representative has suggested that Parliament should ignore the views of 17.4 million UK citizens in order to continue sucking up to Brussels, the French, Germans and the unelected European Commission. I think what is most appalling, though, is the clear, if unintentional, hypocrisy. This man has been democratically elected by the people of Tottenham, and he then proceeds to show utter contempt for the very system that gave him his job. 

The fourth and final development is that it has emerged that Vote Leave have told the country that “Nigel Farage’s contribution is done”. This, to me, is terrible news. Nigel Farage is the man who single-handedly fought for over twenty years to have a referendum on EU membership. He is the man that struck so much fear into the Conservative Party that the Prime Minister promised a referendum by the end of 2017. To hear that he will not be involved in the negotiations is a political tragedy. His hard work was essential in the holding of the referendum, let alone the result. He must be involved in the decision making. He is not a member of the government, nor is he even an MP. But his contribution would be invaluable.