Posted: Jan 27, 2017 12:10 am
I see Monibot's not a fan of referenda on issues of national importance (whether this is 'cause they have the awkward habit of delivering answers he dislikes I'll leave for others to judge):-
Democracy's like free speech: most claim to cherish it; but when it comes to the crunch, far fewer actually do.
Referenda can certainly be abused, and should always be subjected to the rule of law, with protections for minorities being of particular importance. But blunt as they are, in giving the final say to the people, they're the essence of democracy.
Referendums on huge questions, such as our membership of the European Union, suffer from an imbalance between the complexity of the issue and the simplicity of the tool: they demand impossible levels of political knowledge.
Democracy's like free speech: most claim to cherish it; but when it comes to the crunch, far fewer actually do.
Referenda can certainly be abused, and should always be subjected to the rule of law, with protections for minorities being of particular importance. But blunt as they are, in giving the final say to the people, they're the essence of democracy.