Some thoughts from the historian Robert Tombs:
We live in a “representative democracy” – or so we tell ourselves. But who or what is the present parliament representing? Not the majority of the country, as expressed in the 2016 referendum and the 2017 general election. Some two thirds of constituencies voted for Brexit – a vote that would give an unprecedented landslide majority in a parliamentary election - and yet most MPs still support Remain.
. . .
Our present parliament seems to be treading dangerously close, for the first time since the 1830s, to interpreting its “representative” function perversely as entitlement to reject a clearly expressed popular wish.
. . .
As far as I am aware, none of the legal luminaries on the Remain side have ever explained on what theory of law or politics they base their pretension to act as an oligarchy responsible only to themselves. Such a pretension could only be based on the assumption that politicians are wiser or better informed than their voters, but the Brexit debate has surely put paid to that idea.
. . .
The difference between Remainers and Leavers is to a large extent the difference between the Haves and the Have-Nots, shown more glaringly in today’s divisions than at any time since the 1950s. If that is what emerges from our present turmoil, this will indeed turn out to be the Rotten Parliament.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics...-haters-1830s/
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