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> If Remain had won 52% to 48%, you can bet that no second confirmatory vote would have been suggested. You can bet that it would have: https://www.theguardian

by Timon3 1mo ago

> If Remain had won 52% to 48%, you can bet that no second confirmatory vote would have been suggested. You can bet that it would have: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/dec/14/dominic-cummings-would-have-challenged-brexit-referendum-if-vote-leave-had-lost https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/dec/14/dominic-cum... How many of the elections you're referring to were contested, called illegitimate or had similar tactics used to effectively call for the same thing? Maybe you can show me that there are a bunch of examples without anything like this, but the way this tactic spread throughout the political right all over the globe in the last ~10 years makes the assumption quite reasonable IMO.

hn_throw2025 1mo ago
…the difference being that someone like Cummings at the time didn’t have the heft of the Establishment behind him. Anyone can “call” for anything, doesn’t mean it’s going to happen. The “Peoples Vote” or secondary confirmatory vote was favoured by a large group (perhaps a majority of) MPs, the people who have the power to pass laws. The examples I gave in Denmark and Ireland were of real re-runs of ballots organised by the state where the outcome was changed. Beyond the treaties of Nice, Lisbon and Maastricht I could have also mentioned examples in France and the Netherlands where the pro-EU lobby had a second bite of the democratic cherry by being able to make amendments to treaty proposals before organising a second ballot relatively close to the first. This is not something that usually happens after a referendum, which is why people link the EU with “keep voting until you get the right answer”, which I personally think is profoundly anti-democratic.
- Timon3 1mo ago
  But for Brexit the pro-EU side obviously didn't have the heft of the Establishment behind them either, or why was there no confirmatory Brexit vote? Either way, of course you won't find counter-examples if you conveniently define things so the requests made by the anti-EU side simply don't count.

by Timon3 1mo ago

hn_throw2025 1mo ago

…the difference being that someone like Cummings at the time didn’t have the heft of the Establishment behind him. Anyone can “call” for anything, doesn’t mean it’s going to happen. The “Peoples Vote” or secondary confirmatory vote was favoured by a large group (perhaps a majority of) MPs, the people who have the power to pass laws. The examples I gave in Denmark and Ireland were of real re-runs of ballots organised by the state where the outcome was changed. Beyond the treaties of Nice, Lisbon and Maastricht I could have also mentioned examples in France and the Netherlands where the pro-EU lobby had a second bite of the democratic cherry by being able to make amendments to treaty proposals before organising a second ballot relatively close to the first. This is not something that usually happens after a referendum, which is why people link the EU with “keep voting until you get the right answer”, which I personally think is profoundly anti-democratic.

Timon3 1mo ago
But for Brexit the pro-EU side obviously didn't have the heft of the Establishment behind them either, or why was there no confirmatory Brexit vote? Either way, of course you won't find counter-examples if you conveniently define things so the requests made by the anti-EU side simply don't count.