A hundred thousand people marched in London last weekend for a “People’s Vote” on the final Brexit deal.
But there are some who say the Brexit deal, if and when it arrives, must be passed into law without delay.
To scrutinize it would be to deny “the will of the people”.
Any People’s Vote seeking to amend it, or to try and throw it out, would be tantamount to denying democracy.
Leave voters, who already feel their voices are never heard, would be angry, vengeful and even riotous.
And who could blame them? The 2016 vote was, at least in part, about ordinary folk asserting themselves over the elite. You overturn that at your peril.
So the argument goes.
The people have spoken. Now we have to get on and deliver it. No ifs, no buts. A Full British Brexit.
But for all its British Bulldog machismo, that approach won’t wash in the end.
Because even the most adamant Leaver wants a good Brexit. A Brexit that improves Britain.
So the deal matters. It has to make Britain a better place. It has to live up to that most basic promise.
Just as we may see a car for sale online and decide to go for it, it has to be a good buy when it shows up.
We’ll kick its tyres. Maybe have the AA guy check it over for us. Is it what we hoped for? Is it really a good clean runner? If so, great.
If not – if it turns out the thing is a lemon – then no thanks. We’ll pass.
Same with Brexit. When it’s ready, let’s have a look at it. Let’s kick its tyres. Check under the bonnet.
It may be a runner. It may be a lemon.
Just don’t tell us we have to buy it, whatever it looks like, when it finally arrives. We’ll be the judge of that.
If this is inconvenient, sorry.
Call it the right to kick tyres. Call it democracy. Call it the will of the people.
