PETITION FOR A SECOND REFERENDUM - 1 million + signatures already

[GertrudeBelle]

A parliamentary petition has been created calling for a second referendum. As I type, it already has 1,061,466 signatures and the number is growing rapidly so it will have to be taken seriously.

I would urge everyone who is concerned about the consequences of yesterday's result to sign it. It only takes a minute. Get your friends and family to sign too.

Link here:

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/131215

There's also a map showing the location of the signatories. There are some key Remain territories which don't seem to have picked this up - particularly Scotland and Northern Ireland. Please spread the word. Map here:

petitionmap.unboxedconsulting.com/?petition=131215

What percentage of the no-voters were at Glastobury this weekend I wonder. When they were interviewed on TV they were saying on camera "oops we forgot to vote". Maybe that would have made a difference by closing (or widening) the gap but it does highlight how low down a priority it was for some people. I am absolutely certain this isn't reflective of all young people but is an example of a group of people who clearly didn't realise the importance of their vote. A 1 person= 1 vote opportunity like this comes round once in blue moon.

The Leave voters are appalled and dismayed because they didn't understand what they were voting for. They admit it. Vile, disgusting portions of society have become emboldened by the referendum. Muslim mosques surrounded by baying mobs of white trash yelling racist abuse. Pot-bellied, middle aged men with Britain First tattoos are feeling vindicated and empowered.

That petition won't succeed:

BBC political correspondent Iain Watson says the petition has attracted a lot of attention but has zero chance of being enacted, because it is asking for retrospective legislation.

www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-eu-referendum-36634407

They do? All of them? Or just the ones who aren't vile racists?

The BF lunatics exist. But they weren't the whole of the Leave vote. They may well feel vindicated and empowered, but they aren't. Their race hate actions are as illegal now as they were on Thursday!

"I wonder why so many people on MN hate white working class people? core labour voters really. & this is supposed to be a left leaning site."

I wonder why so many Leave voters dress up as nazis and punch kittens.

This sort of comment is gutless and childish, if you disagree with a post then quote it and stop making cowardly posts that don't even mention who you are attacking. It's of the same low-grade sleaziness as the racist dickheads above inventing dishonest Polish facetube mates.

How is the petition even worth the computer it was typed on. You can sign it as many times as you like, use a bot to sign it thousands of times and even get the rest of the world to sign it lol Thats why we DONT have electronic voting in elections.

white trash

It isn't, peach. As I posted earlier, it is being investigated for fraud...

A House of Commons spokeswoman said the petition was created on 24 May. There were 22 signatures on it at the time the referendum result was announced.

So clearly the people of the UK were not strongly interested in the concept of the petition...

It's testament to the fact that people aren't confident in such a humongous step

Actually no - the fact as I posted above that over 80% of those who voted remain have not signed the petition is clearly indicative that they accept the result (if you believe that there is any form of actual representation of the people in an online petition which can be signed by anyone pretending to be anyone!)

so the fact remains unchanged that victory was narrow & needs to be carefully considered in light of everything else.
I think that there is some serious misunderstanding of democracy and how it works, for interest: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_close_election_results shows some close results / narrow victories:

• in the 1880s Ashton-under-Lyne - the election was a draw, the returning officer had the casting vote
• 1997 - Torbay 12 votes difference*
• 2010 - Fermanagh and South Tyrone 4 votes difference

*Liberal Democrat candidate Adrian Sanders gained the seat from the sitting Conservative MP Rupert Allason. It was subsequently reported that Allason lost the seat through failing to leave a tip when dining at a restaurant in his constituency shortly before polling day. It was estimated that 14 voters (restaurant staff and their close family members) switched allegiance from Allason to other candidates as a result. He lost by 12 votes.

These are narrow votes - yet they held, why? because that is democracy - if there had been one vote more in either direction the referendum would have still held - that is democracy, you don't get to keep voting until you get the result you want!

The results above were in the order of a 0.00855% difference in the vote - on Thursday it was over a million people and c. 4% difference: over 450x the size of gap in the vote - that was not a narrow vote on Thursday, it was a resounding and substantial vote to leave.

OK... if you say so!

By the way, I have, of course, reported that post. It doesn't matter how much you dislike a post, or a referendum result, MN T+Cs don't allow such posting!

Great, lie about what people said then whine and snivel cos they point out your dishonesty.

A petition can only ask for a topic to be discussed in Parliament. It will be. It cannot overturn or re-run the referendum. Perhaps knowledge of the facts might help this bad tempered debate. Philip Hammond who drove the petition legislation through parliament explained it very clearly on Radio 4 this morning.

The Leave voters are appalled and dismayed because they didn't understand what they were voting for. They admit it You said that.

To which I replied They do? All of them? Or just the ones who aren't vile racists?

I then went on to agree with you that the BF lunatics are deeply unpleasant, but they are not the whole of the Leave voters.

And If I did misread your post that would make me blind, not 'cloth eared'... calling me a bint makes you clearly misogynistic... and what was the last unedifying epithet? Oh yes, feckless trouser cough, just childish really!

But never mind, you got it out of your system, I suppose!

It's not to overturn the decision. It's to make certain that we are all definitely in agreement. By having another vote.

Come on, you would have to be blind to think that a significant proportion of the population is shocked by the outcome.

Is not*

I wouldn't be surprised if many of the signatures of the petition were found to be fraudulent; but that doesn't alter the fact that many (probably the majority) are genuine and that anyone eligible who wishes to sign should sign it. It is a government petition and as such, part of the democratic process.

The referendum is, legally, advisory only; as such, the government is not forced to act on it. We have a situation where almost half the voters voted to remain in the EU, and the majority of our elected representatives think exiting the EU is a bad thing for the country too. That is the dilemma: do we go ahead with a course of action which could be calamitous for our country and damaging for many outside it, on the basis of a slender majority in the referendum?

I am not arguing for a moment that the Brexit voters should be ignored; but the evidence indicates that this was about so much more than a Brexit vote. There HAS to be massive change in this country, and Brexit may be part of that change. But at least we need to see a post Brexit plan before going ahead so we know what we are opting for.

I voted remain, but I am certain that this petition won't and shouldn't succeed. If it did that would be the end of democracy and no one wants that, do they?

Having a second vote doesn't change the democratic process of the first.

We vote repeatedly on every other issue. It's just that this one is really seriously fucking urgent.

Do we? What do we vote on repeatedly until we get the "right" result? It's a genuine question by the way as I'm no politician.

Bad idea.

Let's just keep voting till the losing side wins? Undemocratic.

But that is too simplistic - nearly half voted to remain (well not really - see above stats), but even so, on that basis more than half voted to leave - and all were given a vote, their choice how to use it or even whether to use it...

We can't not respect the result of such a vote, and however the legal situation make make it advisory, it will have far more long term damage to our country to have an official country vote with polling stations and all and then to ignore the results - to say, sorry we think that you are all children, that was like a mock vote in a primary school, we didn't have any intention of taking any notice...

and as for making sure we are all in agreement v. not overturning the decision, that is (sorry) total nonsense - there would be no point in a second referendum unless it allowed for a possibility of overturning the decision, no leave vote would have any desire to have such a referendum, so by definition it would be a referendum forced on the country by a minority decision with the sole purpose of overturning the decision of the majority - all under the banner of pretending that it is so that we are in agreement...

Sorry, that is not how democracy works - the majority get what they want, not those who shout the loudest, and we would never all be in agreement - nor is democracy about consensus and agreement - that is diplomacy and diplomacy and politics are deliberately different - politics is the art of steering through the rapids and shoals of differing views to produce the best result for the whole... There will always be discord, but in the greater belief in democracy and what is means and allows we accept that it means some decisions we don't like...

The only ways in which there could be any justification in re-running the vote would be:

• fraudulent voting (no claims of that)
• an absolute belief that the voters (or the majority) had no idea what they were doing, and that would be insulting, arrogant, divisive and the end of democracy in this country...

For those who think that membership of the EU has more value than democracy, can I suggest that you might be suited to each other, but fortunately the people of the UK have voted to say that is not an approach we want here...

sorry - can not ignore the result of such a vote!

HereSheComestoSavetheDay you're just prolonging your pain with this.
We are leaving the EU.
That's it.
There will be no 2nd referendum.

*Having a second vote doesn't change the democratic process of the first.

We vote repeatedly on every other issue. It's just that this one is really seriously fucking urgent.*

nonsense.

we vote repeatedly on other issues at different times when time has changed the situation (i.e. every 5 years at a general election we are voting again on unemployment, economy, etc. etc.)

we never take the result of a vote and immediately say we should vote again

it is urgent and important and the majority of the UK have said that they agree with you, and their decision is therefore to leave... those voting to change the status quo, have to be virtue of the inertia to remain as we are, have a higher degree of urgency and need to change, that we have a majority view to change confirms that degree of urgency to move away from the EU - so I agree with you there is an urgency, the decision has been made to address it and we don't need a second vote to confirm what has already been confirmed in the first vote