Nigel Farage

Of course he was talking about a result the other way but, for once, I find myself agreeing with Nigel.

"In hindsight, do you think Britain was right or wrong to vote to leave the EU?" - Wrong overtook Right around July 2017, and has been ahead since, with a seemingly increasing margin [1]

forgot [1]

"Should the United Kingdom remain a member of the European Union, or leave the European Union? (Asked after the referendum)" - Again, in the same timeframe, Remain has consistently been ahead, and the margin generally seems to be growing [2]

I think there is evidence to suggest opinions are changing. Even if there isn't, a second referendum would confirm that the people still want to leave on these terms.

[1] https://whatukthinks.org/eu/questions/in-highsight-do-you-th... [2] https://whatukthinks.org/eu/questions/should-the-united-king...

There are plenty of surveys showing that opinions differ from the original result depending on what the terms of exit are.

You need more complex questions like these:

"Imagine that, at the next general election, the Conservatives supported going ahead with Brexit, whilst Labour and the Liberal Democrats [SCOTLAND: "and the SNP", WALES: "and Plaid Cymru"] supported a public vote on whether or not to go ahead with Brexit. How would you then vote if there was another general election"

https://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/docume...

Let's go absurd to illustrate how difficult the issue is.

Public vote for A or B.

52% choose A

A third of B accept the result.

It is later revealed that option A will cost you a finger. One third of A voters are ok with that and say it's worth the cost. Another third are uneasy and say we should be able to convice provider of A that a finger should not be needed but said provider are unwilling to change their minds having stated from the very begining that this is the price. The final third are sure that no finger will be collected and in fact the provider will throw in a free finger in the end anyway. And if they don't who cares.

Roughly 1/3 of A voters who still fancy some idealised version of A accept that it's not on the table right now or maybe never so join 2/3s of B voters saying we should decide again in the face of the new information. Because there is still no absolute majority in favour of any one of the real possibilities.

Back to reality: > "we don't have to listen to referendums we don't like".

It's not that at all. to quote Dave Allen Green:

"A referendum result either is democratic or it is irreversible, but it cannot both. Any democracy should be able to change its mind, at any time. Just as no parliament can bind another, no electorate can bind another."

It seems to me that a big part of the current political stalemate is that many people want to tell us what the 52% or the 48% did or didn't vote for, but almost invariably it's just their opinion/projection with no particular evidentiary basis. There have been relatively few decent surveys from just before or since the referendum, and even those we do have available don't support a lot of the inflammatory rhetoric and stereotypes about who voted either way or why.

"A referendum result either is democratic or it is irreversible, but it cannot both. Any democracy should be able to change its mind, at any time. Just as no parliament can bind another, no electorate can bind another."

This is true as a matter of law under our constitution, but of course politically the situation isn't as simple as that. Running another referendum would be expensive and time-consuming, and unless there was going to be an overwhelming change to the opposite view (for which there is little expectation on current evidence) it's not clear that it would actually resolve anything, whether the result was again a slight majority for leave or reversed to a slight majority for remain.