{"id":1517,"date":"2016-06-27T00:31:11","date_gmt":"2016-06-27T00:31:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/?p=1517"},"modified":"2016-06-27T00:33:09","modified_gmt":"2016-06-27T00:33:09","slug":"respect-the-brexit-vote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/2016\/06\/respect-the-brexit-vote.html","title":{"rendered":"Respect the Brexit vote"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Respect<\/a><\/h3>\n

Whatever you may think of it, everyone\u00a0–\u00a0politicians most of all\u00a0–\u00a0must\u00a0respect the Brexit vote.<\/h3>\n

The British people are not a bunch of children who need to be stood in the corner\u00a0by know-it-all politicians because they voted “wrong”. They have voted, albeit by a slim margin, to no longer be part of the European Union.<\/strong><\/p>\n

As far as I am concerned, this is what the people want. It is an issue that had affected\u00a0me very little as I don’t believe in identity politics. I had no position on it, until the population had finally made the true extent of their skepticism towards the EU\u00a0clear.<\/p>\n

Let’s try to understand their minds. This is not an economic question but a matter of identity and history. British people do not identify as Europeans. If there is to be a European political association, the Brits do not belong in it. Even those who voted “Remain” don’t belong in\u00a0it. Merely\u00a0swayed by economic fears, they voted “Remain”\u00a0because the television told them so, or because people “like me” are supposedly voting this way.<\/p>\n

“Finest hour”?<\/h3>\n

People don’t regret this. For those\u00a0who voted “Leave”, voting was quite literally their “finest hour”\u00a0–\u00a0their own\u00a0moment to\u00a0stand\u00a0up to the Continent just like their ancestors in the Napoleonic Wars and the World Wars. The British, once again, discovered a\u00a0stubbornness that has been unique to them in history. They\u00a0won’t back down. Even\u00a0if they have to tighten their belts and\u00a0face economic costs for\u00a0standing up to the\u00a0great and powerful Continent, they won’t regret what they did.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Possibly egged on by billboards of the new Independence Day<\/em><\/a> movie, many\u00a0sincerely felt the\u00a0wave of patriotic feeling invoked by Boris Johnson in his speech calling for a British “Independence Day”<\/a>. Many who had never voted on any political issue\u00a0were moved\u00a0to vote.<\/p>\n

Respect the Brexit vote and honor it even if you disagree with it<\/h3>\n

If we think anything good about the will of the people, about democracy, we should respect the Brexit vote.<\/p>\n

I have noted with dismay\u00a0the\u00a0aggressive and irrational attitudes have already on display\u00a0towards the larger half of the voting public\u00a0for their stubborn\u00a0and emotional vote out of the European Union. Among these is the view that\u00a0the will of the people should just be trampled. Some\u00a0believe we should vote again and again, as if the ballot box\u00a0is a kind of broken vending machine you can hit\u00a0until it works, until\u00a0the population finally votes to remain in the EU.<\/p>\n

Others say\u00a0the Parliament should\u00a0vote to rip up the referendum result, keep Britain in the EU, and never allow the people to vote on this issue again. Of all the nasty rhetoric in the campaigns over Britain’s membership of the EU, this idea\u00a0is the most disgraceful. It\u00a0is the most offensive suggestion of all.<\/p>\n

Broken democracy?<\/h3>\n

The idea that the wishes of the British people should be overruled by an authoritarian Parliament, as advanced by David Lammy<\/a>, is unfortunate.\u00a0Such a move would include\u00a0all the arrogance, privilege and disregard for people’s lives shown by\u00a0those anti-Muslim racists often seen among UKIP supporters and other right-wingers, and adds even more\u00a0on top.\u00a0This\u00a0advocates overruling democracy, people-power,\u00a0and men and women\u00a0of all faiths and\u00a0races, whenever\u00a0the (overwhelmingly white) state is convinced\u00a0it knows best. If we don’t respect the Brexit vote, we have already gone that\u00a0far.<\/p>\n

At least I’m\u00a0sure Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn will personally respect the Brexit vote and stand by the wishes of the British people. If the majority of MPs have any sense, they’ll\u00a0honor the wishes of the people and\u00a0block any attempt to dismiss the results of the referendum.<\/p>\n

Second Scottish independence referendum?<\/h3>\n

There has been talk of a second Scottish independence referendum<\/a>. While I support this idea, and polls indicate it would succeed in getting Scotland its much-deserved independence, I\u00a0am doubtful\u00a0a second “Yes” campaign in Scotland will produce anything other than a second “No” vote. The same people who believed the rhetoric coming out of London and voted “No” the first time have not gone anywhere, nor will they have access to any different sources of information than they did the first time. Irrational\u00a0though the defenders of the United Kingdom’s integrity as a state\u00a0may be, have they not already won the hearts of the people?<\/p>\n

In addition, while I believe referendums are good and a second one for Scotland should be held, I think there must be a delay. It should take place after exit referendums have taken place in at least some other EU countries. It will be unfortunate\u00a0for Scotland to get ready\u00a0to rejoin the EU, only to then learn all the other countries wish\u00a0to leave.<\/p>\n

No, it’s\u00a0not Corbyn’s fault<\/h3>\n

Finally, opponents of Jeremy Corbyn within Labour need to\u00a0cut him some slack. If his opponents were so much more capable of convincing the British people not to vote Brexit, why didn’t they do so? Aren’t they just as useless as him? Why didn’t these wise guys tell Corbyn the magic tweet he needed to convince people not to vote Brexit?<\/p>\n

My belief is that the vote to leave the EU will later appear\u00a0wise, once the true weakness of the European Union is exposed by the loss of such a significant country. Historians may ask, “might\u00a0the EU have survived, had the UK chosen not to respect the Brexit vote?” Maybe, but clearly most\u00a0British people don’t care for the EU’s survival or the well-being of Europe\u00a0whatsoever. As explained earlier, Brits continue to regard\u00a0Europe as alien and potentially hostile.<\/p>\n

Many from the former “Remain” campaign issue sneering\u00a0proclamations that\u00a0Britain will suffer for leaving, like the people have\u00a0upset an angry god. But the\u00a0EU\u00a0will receive all the “Brexit\u00a0government”‘s blame\u00a0for any ensuing\u00a0economic woes, and we’ll see everyone\u00a0devour that rhetoric eagerly. Considering the EU’s apparent determination to impose costs on the UK for leaving, future rhetoric blaming the EU for an ailing British economy could even have significant merit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Whatever you may think of it, everyone\u00a0–\u00a0politicians most of all\u00a0–\u00a0must\u00a0respect the Brexit vote. The British people are not a bunch of children who need to be stood in the corner\u00a0by know-it-all politicians because they voted “wrong”. They have voted, albeit by a slim margin, to no longer be part of the European Union. As far…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":577,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66,57],"tags":[590,1415,198,1504,161,945,629,1505,1340,1485,1487,1486],"class_list":["post-1517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-2","category-scottish-independence","tag-boris-johnson","tag-brexit","tag-britain","tag-david-lammy","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-european-union","tag-independence-day","tag-jeremy-corbyn","tag-scotland","tag-scottish-independence","tag-uk"],"yoast_head":"\nRespect the Brexit vote - L'Ordre<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Everyone, especially in Parliament, must respect the Brexit vote. 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