Votes as a % of total electorate, vs votes as a % of all votes cast
The "What is the point of Labour?" thread is wandering off-topic but I wanted to respond to the last two posts, by Orkneycadian and Corky, which look at the percentage of votes cast based on the whole electorate, which is misleading and disingenuous. Corky says only 37% of voters voted to Leave the EU.
I haven't done the arithmetic to check the 37%, but I do have this figure - 12,948,018 people DIDN'T vote in the Brexit referendum. I accept that some of those weren't able to - they were expats living full time abroad and so (rightly) excluded, and I'm sure there are other exclusions as well, but nonetheless. Any of those people now regretting their bone idleness, apathy and lack of interest would attract nothing but scorn (and pitying laughter) if they went along to a bookie and said "I wish I'd bet on the 500:1 winner in the last race but I didn't because <insert whine of choice here>. But I would have done. So here's my £5 stake, can I have my winnings, please?"
17,410,742 voted to Leave. 16,141,241 voted to Remain. So 52% of those who could be bothered to vote, versus 48% of those who could be bothered to vote. Those who couldn't be bothered simply excluded themselves from being part of the next move. That's the way it works here. Same logic for the Indy 1 referendum. Don't vote? No say!
I'm sure there are countries other than Australia who require all registered voters to vote in General Elections (and maybe referenda?) BY LAW. Seems like an unnecessary piece of heavy-handed authoritarianism to me, even if the ballot includes a "none of the above" category (something I'd like to see introduced here!). Why shouldn't a citizen have the right to abstain / choose not to vote?
As for "national suicide", well, that's another argument. It's mystery to me why many Scots are so vehemently opposed to remaining in Union with the rUK, and yet so eager to join part of the most dead-end, repressive and undemocratic superUnion whose decision makers cannot be voted out, and whose currency system has repressed economic growth for over a decade, causing massive youth unemployment in the process. Scotland will just be absorbed into the morass of repressive EU laws and trade restrictions, and lose the ability to decline to accept what the EU asks of them - stand by to be required to part-fund and contribute to the EU Army, when it comes along (which it's doing), regardless of the views of the Scottish leadership that Faslane is toast. Together, I imagine, with all the support jobs and local businesses in that remote area making a living because of the existence of the place!
Oh well. It'll be what it'll be. The trump card that rUK can play is the trade deficit we run with Europe; £54 billion a year. Germany is going into recession right now as payback for its mercantilist economic policies screwing southern Europe for its own gain, and so the ability of the UK to do trade deals elsewhere would be feared and keenly watched by the Kommissars in Brussels / Strasbourg and Bonn. Not to mention 770,000 auto workers building Mercs, BMWs, Porsches, Audis and VWs. The UK is the world's biggest market for Mercedes cars; our voice will count. Personally, I hope for for a completely clean break Brexit. The problem I think exists is that I'm not sure about Johnson's will or ability to deliver it.
