New vote on rejoining EU would be democracy in action: Yorkshire Post Letters

Alan Machin’s letter claims the EU Commission is “unelected” (The Yorkshire Post, July 28).

The reality is commissioners are chosen by democratically elected national governments and ratified by democratically elected MEPs.

I am not saying it is perfect - any more than I would say our own antiquated, first-past-the-post system is perfect. I also need to correct Mr Machin where he accuses me of wanting to “overthrow the Brexit vote and get people to vote again”.

If we have another democratic vote on European Union membership in the future then that is not “overthrowing” anything. It would be democracy in action.

It is what I and many others are campaigning for - democratically; it is what many more would like to see. Especially all the millions of twenty-somethings too young to vote in 2016. Is it democratic to deny them that, given how narrow the margin was ten years ago?

Mr Machin claims the EU is lobbying for another vote. It is doing no such thing. Whilst EU officials and the wider European citizenry make clear we would be welcome back, they are equally clear that they respect the 2016 vote and any moves for a further referendum are a matter for the British people.

The current government is working with the EU to cut Brexit’s bureaucratic burdens on British business and allow participation in EU schemes judged beneficial to our country.

But EU members will want to see strong support from the British public before an application to rejoin will be considered. You can bet their politicians wouldn’t be so foolish as to base a huge and fundamental constitutional upheaval on something like a narrow 52-48 margin, for example.

Peter Brown, Cleckheaton.

Peter Auty appears to have misunderstood a YouGov poll when he claimed it found 60 per cent “didn’t want to rejoin the EU” (The Yorkshire Post, July 13). It immediately looked dubious, given the divide was only 52-48 during the referendum a decade ago and support for Brexit has drained away since.

YouGov published a poll on June 9 to mark the 10th anniversary of the referendum. Amongst its findings were 55 per cent would support simply rejoining the EU and 59 per cent would support “a closer relationship - without rejoining”.

It is this second figure that I believe Mr Auty has confused. For example, as someone who clearly supports rejoining, if full membership is not currently on the table, I would still support a “closer relationship” as a pragmatic first step. Mr Auty seems to have incorrectly assumed that anyone ticking the "closer relationship" box is permanently opposed to rejoining.

The full findings are on the YouGov website, headed: “What do Britons think of Brexit, 10 years since the referendum.”

It’s not “60 per cent” who oppose rejoining - it is only 34 per cent. As indicated above, the majority (55 per cent) want us back in the EU. Crucially, “a closer relationship - without rejoining” is the one response that has majority support from 2016 Remain voters and Leave voters.

Since the version of Brexit sold by the Leave campaign in 2016 isn’t the hardline version implemented by Boris Johnson, you can understand why.