Why the EU referendum result has no democratic legitimacy
On the 23rd June 2016, the UK was supposed to take part in the biggest exercise of democracy it has ever had. Leave campaigners heralded the EU referendum as a “vote for democracy”, however the dishonest practices of Vote Leave and its campaigners has quite possibly turned the EU referendum into one the biggest abuses of democratic process this country has ever seen.
For the EU referendum campaign, Vote Leave created a website and published numerous campaign leaflets on a range of topics, including immigration, border controls, migration (including Turkish membership) EU contributions and national security. They also created a primary document, called “Why Vote Leave on the 23rd June” which amalgamated the key messages of the campaign.
The core messages from Vote Leave were
immigration is out of control and we will regain control once we leave,
we can’t control our borders
we pay £350m a week to the EU which we could spend on the NHS instead
we are not in control of our defence
we have no control or input into anything that happens in the EU and we are consistently outvoted,
the unelected European Commission controls our law,
terrorists and violent criminals can come into the UK with impunity and we can’t do anything about it,
the European courts control us,
the Charter of Fundamental Rights gives the European Court of Justice unlimited power,
an EU army is on its way, which our army will be forced to join
Turkey, Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia will be joining by 2020
We can’t stop any of these countries joining
We have no control as members of the EU.
Scary stuff.
Except… none of the above statements are true.