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Fascinating from David Runciman (he of @TPpodcast_): More than 3m individuals voted in the referendum who don’t normally vote. Their participation helped decide the result – yet effectively they are unrepresented in Parliament. ukandeu.ac.uk/wp-content/upl…
"This points to the need for a more profound reform of how Parliament represents the people. The problem goes deeper than partisan divides: neither of the main parties is able to bridge wider social divisions because both parties are relatively uniform in their make-up."
"The breakaway Independent Group exemplifies the problem rather resolving it: its members are career politicians who have much more in common with the politicians they have left behind in the main parties than the disaffected voters they claim to represent."
"The truth is that even if a one-off referendum has only a limited claim to represent ‘the voice of the people’, parliament’s own claim to speak for the people is limited too. The political class that governs from there is too narrowly drawn, too uniform and too predictable."
"It would be a mistake to think that the problems with parliamentary representation revealed by the Brexit referendum are simply a function of that referendum. They are also a function of the kind of Parliament we have, and a reason why it needs to change."
