When Politicians Shy Away from Taking Decisions

But if democracy is rule of, by and for the people, shouldn’t the people get to make the major decisions that affect their lives? Fair question, but the real answer is that in a representative democracy, they do – every five years in India – by electing their representatives.

The people are sovereign in a democracy, but they exercise their sovereignty through a Parliament that is meant to reflect their wishes. If politicians become out of touch with the people they claim to represent, they can be tossed out of office at the next election.

To make decisions like this by referendum is to abdicate a major responsibility of the political class – to make informed decisions on behalf of the people they serve.

The pound sterling has already dropped 10% against the US dollar, and investors are bracing themselves for a market crash this morning. The UK economy will wobble, whether or not it recovers soon enough, as Leave supporters optimistically claim it will.

Brexit will give new impetus to demands for separarion from Scotland, which voted overwhelmingly to remain in the European Union. Cosmopolitan, European-accented London will change unrecognisably. Borders will spring up where they had disappeared, as with Ireland.

But these are not consequences that would have occurred to the grumpy senior who voted to restore Britain to an imagined state of half-remembered imperial glory.