Surprise! The Economist has come out in favour of a new referendum on Brexit, joining Sadiq Khan, Tony Blair and possibly the entire cast of Strictly in calling for a People’s Vote. It observes sagely: “no one can claim to intuit what the people want. The only way to know is to ask them”. And of the PM’s peculiar tour of the nation to flog her plan (why?), it declares that it is an exercise in “pantomime” democracy:“May is right that MPs should take into account what the public think. So should she: not by guessing, but by calling on them to vote”.
But on what? What all the demands for a People’s Vote, including this one, have in common is absolute unclarity about what any new referendum should be about, though everyone, from Justine Greening down, are very clear that if people voted to remain in the EU they would respect their decision this time; oh yes.
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