Also, for each group, what would their second choice be e.g. “Soft Brexit” is made up of some people who want to leave, but would rather remain than face no-deal, and some who want to leave no matter what and would be happy to leave with no deal. Some of the ERG, fairly hardcore “No-Deal” brexiteers, have said they’d rather remain than have a soft brexit where we follow EU laws without a say in them. It’s not enough to assume that soft brexiteers would accept a hard brexit, or vice versa.
Could Parliament vote on it like the type of election where the least popular option gets nixed at each round until you’re down to the 2 main options?
WAG : because any such referendum would also perforce have to include a “Remain” option, which would win by a sizeable margin at this point.
Alternatively : because that’s already been settled on day 1 by PM May : Brexit means Brexit. What more could you possibly want ?
Thats almost what they’re doing with the “indicative votes”. Wednesday they voted on 7 (I think) options, none of which had a majority. On Monday they are doing another round of voting based on the most popular options, although some may change slightly, e.g. I’ve seen mention that the “Customs Union” & “2nd Ref” options (the 2 closest to passing) may be merged into a single “Customs Union with Confirmatory Ref” option.
What an unbelievable clusterfuck! All I can say is, with the UK plagued by the seemingly irresolvable consequences of the Brexit vote, and the US plagued by the consequences of having elected Trump, this is a great day for Russia. Putin must be delighted. All that hard work has definitely paid off!
There are three issues. The first one is that before the referendum, the government promised that the referendum was a once-in-a-lifetime vote, and that the results of the vote would be respected. In the general election that followed the referendum, both the Conservative and Labour reiterated the promise to respect the referendum. So, fundamentally, there’s an expectation that government and opposition should honour their promises.
The second issue is that people expect Parliament to do its job. The hung Parliament isn’t a policy failure, it’s a political failure. There should be some compromise position between the Conservative and Labour exit positions. They really aren’t that far apart. Keep in mind that the withdrawal agreement isn’t the final agreement. That’s going to be years down the road in the form of a UK-EU free trade agreement. There should be a cross-party consensus on what that future agreement should look like. So the Conservatives should concede to Labour on respecting worker’s rights and meet Labour halfway on keeping the principle aspects of the customs union. And after concessions, Labour should accept the withdrawal agreement. However, May isn’t willing to work with Corbyn, as it would go against the hard-Brexiter Tories, and Corbyn’s objective is to force a general election.
The third issue is that there really isn’t a mandate for a second referendum. Plenty of Leavers want one, as it’s a do-over with no negative impact to them. However, the general attitude is just to get this over with. Margaret Beckett tried to get support for a second referendum during the indicative votes on Wednesday. The vote was defeated, mainly on party lines. Note that 27 Labour MP’s voted against that proposal. So a second referendum is not the will of Parliament, and while the potential outcome of a re-vote is up in the air, it’s very doubtful that holding a re-vote is the will of the people.
Having said that, it’s quite possible that a second referendum will happen. Parliament has to do something, and the second referendum was the option with the most For votes from the indicative votes. There probably will be another round of indicative votes on Monday. Hopefully there will be some way of getting to a consensus position then, and it seems like it will either be staying in the customs union, or having a second referendum.
I guess you missed the petition and protests, then. If there’s no mandate for a second referendum, there’s never been any mandate for anything the public wants.
The only people who still want to leave the EU either don’t understand the issues, or are quite happy to harm the country for personal gain. Fortuantely, that is no longer a majority of the country.
Breaking news: Brenda takes action! 
And take two. 
When it comes to petitions, I’m mindful that a few years ago, the social media petition for Jeremy Clarkson for prime minister had nearly a million backers. It’s very easy and free to sign up for one. Let me know when it gets up to 16.5 million.
And as for the people who don’t understand the issues, I’m astounded by the number of Remainers that believe the only Brexit will be a cliff-edge no-deal Brexit. But I guess Remainers are better at moaning than learning.
That’s a lot more likely now than it was an hour ago, following the House of Commons vote and the EU reaction to it.
Given May’s and Parliament’s inability to come to any approved proposal whatsoever, despite many months of work and votes, even with a deadline looming, is that really an unreasonable belief?
Of course, before the referendum when the polls were trending toward Remain, the Leave campaigners (Our Nigel prominently among them as well as members of the Government) were already stating that if they lost they would persist in demanding another vote or that the UK leave the EU without one. It’s only once they won that suddenly the referendum was vox populi et vox Dei.
Really? Plenty of Leavers want one?
Ironcially, this is also the general attitude of someone with suicidal tendencies.
Of course, one could make exactly the same argument against a no-deal Brexit, or any of the other Brexit options that have made their way to the table. Parliament doesn’t have a “will” at all. That is the problem.
So we should have a referendum to see if people want another referendum? You appear to be declaring “what the people want” by fiat.
I find this attitude quite humourous. Considering the fact that Brexiteers have had, what, nearly three years to reach a compromise in respect to what they want, and they still haven’t come to a decision.
Nearly six million people signing a petition for a second referendum is nowhere near, by any stretch of the imagination, the same as ‘Clarkson for PM’ not when it is complimented by around 500,000 on the street marching for a second vote, or in light of the fact that more than 100 constituencies have switched to remain
I’m glad the withdrawal agreement was defeated, because if it was agreed, the train of motion would of gone towards a Brexit that no one wants, and would of closed off a peoples vote forever, now that is gone (One hopes) The choices are now more distinct and fairer. May’s deal was always a false choice, she has tried to frighten MP’s into it being a binary choice, when in fact there are still lots of avenues for this to go down.
You sound like the ‘just get on with it’ Crowd. They’re a minority.
My personal belief is that May has neither the desire nor the courage to go through with a No Deal Brexit. She’s caved in on pretty much every hard stand she’s tried to make to date. I’m sure she’ll cave again. I think she’s going to have to follow whatever the result of Monday’s indicative vote is, so long as it’s something that the EU will agree to. A second referendum, customs union, or long extension while Common Market 2.0 is negotiated are all possibilities. My guess is a long extension and participation in the EU parliamentary elections is most likely. However, I’m mindful, as I stated earlier, that I’m lousy at predicting what’s going to happen when it comes to Brexit.
I mean, I’d vote for him, but I’m not sure why he’d want to take such a drop in income, status and influence. As for your arbitrary number, it is no more meaningful that that. The majority of the UK doesn’t want to leave. The only reason they ever did is because they were lied to.
Since the deal with the EU has been rejected by both Parliament and, according to polling, the public, a no-deal Brexit is now the only option. Well, unless either side is willing to drop their “red lines”, but they’d both be foolish to do so.
You do understand that the deal has been rejected and we are leaving without a deal in a fortnight, right?
The problem with that is that “do nothing” is always an option. Even if you pare it down to the two most popular options, parliament is under no obligation to vote for any of them. They could still vote “no” to both.
So, we’re back to where we were a couple of weeks ago. By far the most likely option is crashing out in a fortnight with no deal, unless the EU is somehow prepared to give us a longer extension despite the fact we won’t meet their arbitrary conditions for it, or us rescinding Article 50. The first of those won’t happen as we’re not going to hold European elections (nor should we until this is all sorted out), and the latter won’t because there is roughly zero chance of getting Parliament to agree to it in 2 weeks.
I am very firmly in the ‘just get on with it’ crowd. I’m certainly not the only one.
But get on with what, precisely? That’s been the unresolved question since the referendum was called.