1/ Brexiters pretend democracy is only about votes. This is false. Here are 3 other key elements of democracy, all of which have been attacked by #Brexit politicians.
1. The right to oppose.
2. Information - voters must be sufficiently well-informed.
3. The rule of law.
1. The right to oppose.
2. Information - voters must be sufficiently well-informed.
3. The rule of law.
2/ The right to oppose #Brexit has been relentlessly attacked by Brexit politicians and media. They have screamed that Brexit is the "Will of the People", demonising opponents as enemies of the people, saboteurs, subversives, plotters, mutineers & traitors.
3/ Recently Brexiters on both Right and Left have used threats of violence and civil disorder as reasons to block a #PeoplesVote. Mob violence is being given precedence over democracy, a stance appropriate to fascism, not democracy.
4/ For many months after the referendum most of the media and almost all MPs treated speaking out against #Brexit as a kind of blasphemy. Pro-Remain opinions were all but totally shut out of the mainstream. This is the politics of populist dictatorship, not democracy.
5/ In a democracy voters must be sufficiently well-informed to make reasoned decisions. This was not the case in June 2016. They had been lied to on a scale unparalleled in modern British political history and were profoundly misinformed. 
6/ The referendum Leave option was little more than a vague catch-all slogan. Voters could have no idea of what the final deal would be like, or even if there would be a deal. The information available was perhaps suitable to a vote to initiate Brexit, but not to complete it.
7/ Now we are reaching a situation in which sufficient information will be available for voters to decide whether to continue with #Brexit, Brexiters are seeking to block a #PeoplesVote. By doing so they are violating the informational requirement of democracy.
8/ Finally we come to the rule of law, without which democracy collapses. Tory rage against the Article 50 court case was deeply troubling. There was fury against the idea that the government might have to conform to the rule of law.
9/ Since then we have discovered that electoral law was broken, and now it is reported that the government is trying to delay or block police investigations into electoral crime. The government is undermining democracy by trying to ride roughshod over the rule of law.
10/ To conclude: The government, Brexit politicians and media, have repeatedly and cynically violated 3 of the key requirements of democracy. Far from being democratic, the Brexit process has witnessed an unparalleled attack on our democracy.
