On 23 June 2016, the Brexit vote took place. Over 33 million votes were cast and the result was that 51.89% voted in favour of leaving the EU, with 48.11% voting to remain in the EU. The result was obviously very close, though it was still a majority; there was a clear outcome and that was that the UK was going to leave the EU. However, since the vote took place, it’s safe to say that things concerning Brexit haven’t exactly gone swimmingly.
The UK is set to formally and officially leave the EU at 11 am on 29 March 2019, all things going well. While there are those who still in favour of leaving, despite all the fuss and carry-on, there are those who are very vocal about wanting to remain – former Prime Minister Tony Blair, for example. There have even been calls for a second Brexit referendum. Another former Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, said he believes the people of the UK should be given a second vote. But should they?
The simple reason is no – there should never, ever be a second Brexit referendum. The reason for this is very simple: we, as a country, democratically voted to do something, i.e. leave the EU. Until we’ve left the EU, the purpose of the vote hasn’t been fulfilled. If we’d voted to remain, then simply continuing to remain in the EU – i.e. doing nothing – would have satisfied the purpose of the vote.
Theresa May herself has said there won’t be a second Brexit referendum. It’s looking very unlikely that there will be one – and rightly so. But what if, for argument’s sake, there was? If we voted to leave a second time, great. If we voted a second time and the outcome was that we wanted to leave, then what? What would our leaders do? Satisfy the majority who voted to leave the first time round, or appease the majority who voted to remain the second time round? We voted to leave and the whole Brexit business has become very convoluted, chaotic and quite fierce at times. Matters like this should always be as simple as possible for the sake of both the voting public and the leaders who have to carry these things out.
In short, we voted to leave and so we will leave. If we don’t, what was the point of the referendum? If this referendum’s purpose isn’t fulfilled, voter turnout for future referenda, or even just any kind of election, will surely plummet. Leaving the EU is something we’ve been promised. Not everyone wants to leave, sure, but the majority do and, as a democratic nation, we should get on with it. If we don’t leave for whatever reason, all those who voted will be very angry indeed at being promised something only to have it not go ahead. Brexit means Brexit, after all.