Re: Wow, it's almost...
"BUT ignoring the referendum result because you don't like it isn't how things work in a democracy."
Of course it is. Some people seem to have a very odd idea of what democracy actually means. Every single democratic country in the world is a representative democracy, in which a small number of people are chosen to actually make decisions. Direct democracy, in which the people as a whole vote on all decisions, is essentially non-existent. Even Switzerland, which is well known as having a lot of binding referendums, actually still runs on representative democracy most of the time, and the few other examples around the world are mostly for minor local matters not for entire countries.
In systems like the one we use in the UK, referendums are rarely binding. They're essentially little more than an opinion poll that happens to be run by the government rather than a polling company. The whole point of having elected representatives is that they are supposed to make a considered decision based on all the facts available; a public referendum might help inform that decision, but it is far from the only relevant factor. To claim that a non-binding opinion poll being overridden by an elected government is undemocratic is just plain nonsense.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
