The best way out of the Brexit mess
Parliament cannot agree on what kind of Brexit the people want. Rather than guess, it should ask them
IT TOOK THERESA MAY a year and a half to reach a deal with the European Union. It looks as if it will take Britain’s own Parliament less than a month to throw it out. An imminent vote on whether to approve the prime minister’s Brexit agreement seems almost certain to be lost by a wide margin (see article).
The government’s struggle to get the deal through Parliament exposes a crack that Brexit has created at the heart of Britain’s democracy. Most MPs believe, with reason, that Mrs May’s imperfect compromise is worse than the status quo. As the people’s elected representatives, they have every right to block it. On the other hand, the referendum of 2016 gave them a clear instruction to leave. Although that vote carries no legal weight, it has taken on a moral force like little else. Today’s paralysis is the result of Britain’s inability to reconcile its tradition of representative democracy with its more recent experiments in the direct sort.
This article appeared in the Leaders section of the print edition under the headline "The best way out of the Brexit mess"
From the December 6th 2018 edition
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