Well the Brexit referendum has come and gone, and a few things are now clearer than they were before. Being involved in education whenever I stated that I was for Brexit this would produce the usual dumbfounded disbelief when orthodox leftists encounter an actual different opinion in their midst. One particularly tiresome intern, already in a agitated semi panic, was attempting to guilt staff into registering to vote presuming, not unreasonably, that they were all remainers. I explained that I wasn't British but if I were, I would be voting leave as Brexit is clearly in Australia's national interests and ideologically I am against super-national government and for democracy.
National sovereignty is a precondition for responsible democratic government, answerable to its own electorate and subject to the law of the land. The way the enlightened, chattering classes can do an end run around democracy and Westminster and go direct to Brussels and get things such as mass uncontrolled migration and dubious green policies is all part of the attraction. And if there was any doubt as to the profoundly undemocratic nature of the whole project then the shameless hysteria, snobbery and sheer pique of the bien pensant for once not getting their own way said it all.
In Australia referendums must pass a two-thirds majority in each state to be valid but if you had a genuine problem with the 51% hurdle then the time to state your objections and even boycott the process is before, not after the result is known. The EU has long been run like a student union either ignoring referendums or brow beating the public to vote again until they get the desired result and this more than anything undermined any claim it had to democratic credentials.
Far from retreating into itself the UK has now re-opened itself to the rest of the world and rediscovered its blue water vocation including the Commonwealth. Brexit is a very good thing. But Daniel Hannan says it best in very good French no less.
