I don’t know if ‘Leave’ supporters will win. With the young abstaining and the old voting in a low-turnout referendum, it is just about possible that they could. But it is already dismally clear how they will react if they lose: they won’t accept the result.
Nigel Farage was proud to admit that he would be a bad loser. ‘In a 52-48 referendum this would be unfinished business by a long way,’ he told the Mirror. ‘If the Remain campaign win two-thirds to one-third that ends it.’
The old-fashioned among you might have thought that in any electoral contest the side with the most votes wins. How out of touch you fuddy-duddies are. It is not enough to win a majority of the vote anymore. To win pro-Europeans must secure two-thirds of the vote before they can rightfully claim victory. I would love to see this notion extended. Would Farage say that we have only truly voted to leave the EU if Brexit wins by two-thirds to one-third? Does the same apply in sport? Will we hear Robbie Savage announce that although Leicester City won, they did not get two thirds of the goals, so the win doesn’t count?
Admittedly, many democratic states require constitutional changes to be approved by two-third majorities.
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