PETITION TO HAVE BREXIT REFERENDUM CANCELLED GATHERS MOMENTUM

 PETITION TO HAVE BREXIT REFERENDUM CANCELLED GATHERS MOMENTUM

The Independent today reporting on a petition to have the EU referendum cancelled 19 June 2016

• a petition to cancel next week's European Union referendum has surged in support in the days following the killing of MP Jo Cox.
•  over 20,000 people have signed the statement on the Parliament website in the last few days calling for the vote to be called off at the last minute
•  the petition has over double the 10,000 required signatures for it to reach its first hurdle, the Government will be obliged to issue an official response to it in due course.
• at the current rate of increase the campaign looks set to hit 100,000 signatures before polling day on Thursday - a bar which would normally trigger a debate in parliament.

Parliament is currently in recess though until after the referendum so that MPs can campaign for their preferred side so a debate is highly unlikely to take place.

Says The Indy:

The petitioners argue that Britain is a parliamentary democracy and that parliament, rather than a national plebiscite, should determine whether Britain stays in the EU.

"According to the BBC 444 MPs of (almost) all parties have declared their support for Britain staying a member of the European Union on the basis of the reform package negotiated by the Prime Minister," the petitioners say.

"Constituting more than 68 per cent of the votes in the House of Commons, this represents a rate and overwhelming cross-party Parliamentary majority.

"If it is the settle will of such a large majority in the House of Commons, Parliament should now rise to the occasion and asset the very sovereignty Brexit campaigners claim it has lost."

The argument of whether a referendum should have been called in the first place has been there from the start with many observers/voters saying any decision on EU membership should have been left to those we elect to serve.

Sadly it's taken a brutal murder to re-awaken that particular debate, and too late it would appear in any case.
Source : news(dot)forexlive(dot)com