Second referendum would be a betrayal of democracy

All the betrayal, cynicism and manipulation by which the political class has controlled and intimidated the population of Britain over the past half-century have finally acquired a single evocative defining term: Second Referendum.

In that infamous demand made by the ruling oligarchy resides all the overweening sense of entitlement and expectation of compliance that has for decades sustained those who have ruled us for too long. The new establishment which partly replaced the old order in the 1960s moved its life-support system offshore: it relies on Brussels to provide a framework to support its domestic authority.

The assorted politicians, technocrats, bureaucrats, crony capitalists and “opinion formers” who constitute the Remain faction found themselves staring political death in the face on 24 June 2016. They resembled alien occupiers about to be cut off from the mother ship. Every instinct of self-interest prompted them to employ all their influence to reverse the decision taken by the despised public.

At first, for reasons of caution, they paid lip service to the referendum verdict. The people had spoken, all democrats must respect their decision, however regrettable, blah, blah. Gradually, however, they became enraged and so emboldened to voice their contempt more openly. The voters had not understood the complexities of Brexit, they had been misinformed, lied to; now they were heading for a “cliff edge”. So ran the patronizing narrative by whose logic few people other than Oxford and Cambridge graduates would be qualified to vote at a general election.

The elites colluded with Brussels in fabricating imaginary obstacles – the inane mantra “No hard border on the island of Ireland”, a classic nonsense slogan comparable to “Millions now living will never die” was typical of the guff churned out by the Remain lobby. Against the advice even of the Remainer House of Lords it was agreed to confer a gratuity of £39bn on the Brussels kleptocracy, presumably in recognition of its courtesy, helpfulness and honesty in smoothing Britain’s path to departure from the EU.

So, there is much to be condemned in the antics of our establishment of Remainers and Crypto-Remainers; but one outrage is in a class of its own. The demand for a second referendum because the elites have obstructed the implementation of the first represents the overt termination of democracy in Britain. The biggest democratic exercise in the history of this island, in which 17.4 million voters instructed their servants, the government and Parliament, to take the United Kingdom out of membership of the European Union, is being challenged.

If that mandate is not executed democracy in Britain will be as dead as if we had lost the Second World War. After two and a half years of watching our supine Prime Minister and so-called negotiators being treated as punch-bags by the Brussels hoods – a desperate national humiliation – what would the world think of the spectacle of the British electorate being herded like naughty children into the polling booths to reverse their decision because it displeased the governing elites?

How dare they? How dare anyone be so carried away by a sense of entitlement as to demand that 17.4 million fellow citizens give way to transparent obstruction? The most sick-bag inducing feature of this impudent assault on democracy is the use of the weasel term “People’s Vote”. Whenever the People go upper-case it is a reliable signal that totalitarian aspirations are being entertained. Remember all those “People’s Republics” in Eastern Europe.

Is there supposed to have been some restrictive element to the franchise under which the EU referendum was held, so that we now need a more broad-based People’s Vote? Was it confined to property owners, or doctors of philosophy, or people listed in Burke’s Peerage? The truth is that the vote was held on 23 June 2016 and that is precisely what the establishment is objecting to. The whole people of Britain expressed their will and it is uncongenial to the Remainer elites.

If a massive referendum result can be disregarded, why would anyone ever vote again? Why could we be confident a general election result would stand? Once the template of universal suffrage democracy based on a majority is smashed, the system is defunct. Issues as fundamental as those that provoked the Civil War in 1642 are involved in this attempted coup d’état – for that is what a second referendum, engineered by the forces of oligarchy, would be.

The logistical and constitutional barriers to a second referendum are formidable. But before the oligarchic Remainer faction starts trying to overcome them, it should be made clear the country will not tolerate such a coup. If it ever reached the polling stations it should be boycotted nationwide. If a Leaver boycott enabled a reversal of Brexit the instigators of a second vote would have no complaint if they faced a campaign of civil disobedience.

Once a government loses its legitimacy, once it has unilaterally abandoned the principle of governance by consent, the outcome is a state of de facto anarchy. Constitutions and electoral systems take a long time to mature, a short time to destroy.

Why, then, is Nigel Farage, the individual who has done more than anyone else to liberate Britain from the tyranny of the European Union, advising pro-Brexit voters to prepare for a second referendum? We shall do no such thing. It would be a denial of democracy, a constitutional outrage and totally illegitimate. The British electorate has recorded its final vote and verdict on Brexit. The political class must bow to the will of its masters – the electors – or face consequences that, in the present gilets jaunes political climate of Europe, could be of unexampled seriousness.