But that was a key point that was pushed by many of the proponent of leave, that a lack of sovereignty and freedom was predicated on their inability to directly vote for the EU government, right?
Britons elect MPs. Europeans elect MEPs
Britons donāt elect the prime Minister, Europeans donāt elect the commissioner.
Britons donāt elect Whitehall. Europeans donāt elect Brussels.
I suppose you could argue that āfirst past the postā represents some vital democratic principle, but it would be a weird argument.
Any attempt to make the European Commission more democratic would likely be met with howls of protest that this would infringe on sovereignty or whatnot.
Iām talking less about the reality, and more about peopleās perception, I guess? The perception is that sovereignty and freedom are directly tied to democracy (which may or may not be the case, of course). As you point out, no one directly elects the PM, they elect the party in power in the parliament, which is very similar to how the EU is run (am I correct there?). But the assumption is that the national government, elected by the majority is more democratically elected somehow when compared to the people in Brussels (who are appointed by the EU parliament, yes or no?). Although in reality, it looks like the same level of democratic participation, the perception is that itās not the same level of democratic participationā¦
So, Iām saying that people feel when the vote for the governemnt on a national level, they feel itās more democratic than it is, while Brussels feels less democratic (when itās about the same amount of democracy).
I do find that those two terms, sovereignty and freedom, to be rather vague terms, when used in political speech. More so than democracy is. At least you can pin democracy down to a kind of practice, in general terms. Sovereignty and freedom are harder to define than that, I think.
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This is pretty much where Iām going with this:
Itās either (a) politicians very surprised UK voted Leave - but then, thatās in honesty a decision too important to leave to the whimsies of the masses (I mean, cāmon!); or (b) thereās been some hacking of the roulette table to change the odds.
What struck me is that over the next 10-25 years, the UK will have a lot of economic volatility.
And in volatile times, fortunes are made. You can make money betting down as well as up.
Weāve already seen Theresa May, kind of widely tipped over the last 5 years as a potential leader of the Conservatives, suddenly come into pole position. Political volatility too. Coming from this angle - who will best serve the interests of the power holders? Theresa seems to have stepped up.
Democracy isnāt necessarily about a highly informed public taking clear-minded decisions. It might be more about leading the dog to the right dish.
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