• LET’S be clear: only a minority of the UK’s adult population voted for Brexit last summer. The adult population of the UK last year was about 52 million. Of these, 47 million were registered to vote in the referendum. Sixteen- and 17-year-olds, who had a heavy stake in the matter, weren’t given a say. The same went for large numbers of long-time UK residents from other EU countries, many of them here in Islington.

Of the 47 million registered, 13 million didn’t vote. In many cases this was because they were genuinely perplexed about what way to vote – and fair enough. Sixteen million voted to remain and 17 million to leave. The leave voters thus constituted just a third of the full adult population.

Opinion polls since then have found, pretty consistently, that about nine out of 10 of them still support leave, and do so unconditionally. That’s a bit under 29 per cent of the UK’s adult population. People who oppose Brexit-at-any-price are routinely dismissed by cabinet ministers, senior politicians and sections of the press as unpatriotic and undemocratic – an out-of-touch metropolitan elite. But the remain vote was strong in every part of the country. Nearly three million remain votes were cast in the three most Brexit regions (the East Midlands, West Midlands and North-east). Were all those voters unpatriotic metropolitan elitists?

We’re told it’s undemocratic to question the supposedly rock-solid majority for Brexit at whatever cost. Our democratic credentials would certainly be questionable if we didn’t accept general election results. But the general election system is built on a recognition that opinions shift. We can reverse the verdict within five years, and no one questions the right of the defeated side to continue their fight.

The referendum was a completely different animal. If Brexit goes ahead it will be irreversible, but anyone who continues to warn of the dangers is vilified.  This is a time when we might have looked for leadership from the majority of MPs (including our own in Islington) who supported the remain arguments. Instead, they hide behind the claim that they are bound to accept “the will of the people”?

The will of 29 per cent? What about the rest of us? There is no mandate for the Brexit juggernaut.

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