Re:Reality Check: Have Leave campaigners changed their minds?
by jazzyk on Tuesday June 28, 2016 @02:06PM
(#11996034)
1. Free travel != immigration policy
2. Referendum > Representatives (the only reason we use representatives is because referendums don't scale)
Re:Reality Check: Have Leave campaigners changed their minds?
by dragonwriter on Tuesday June 28, 2016 @03:59PM
(#11997029)
In California, constitutionally, the power of referendum and initiative is reserved to the people, and does trump there per our the legislature. So, a system of government argument of the type you made would work for California.
The UK, however, has no such reserved powers of the people, but instead has parliamentary supremacy. The referendum is not, in that system, superior to the representatives.
And you live within a representative, rather than direct, democracy which features non-binding referenda; the people speak with binding authority through elections of representatives. There may be reasons that the government should put the results of the referendum into policy, but appeals to the nature of the system of government do not provide that reason.