Open letter to MPs RE: Brexit

So I wrote a letter to my MP based on my last post. I took out all the pictures and colorful language, like the bit where I called Nigel Farage a 'vinegar faced human lollipop.'

So I figure if you want to send it to your own MP, or let your MP know how you feel about the leave vote, you can just copy and paste mine, and fill in the blanks. 

You can find who your MP is at http://www.theyworkforyou.com/, and go to http://www.parliament.uk/mps-lords-and-offices/mps/ to find their email (under the constituency heading).

Copy / paste begins: 

Dear ___  _______, 

I am writing to you as parliamentary MP for _______, which I understand covers the town of _______, where I live. 

I am sending you this letter as it is my opinion (and I hope I will prove that I am not alone in this) that the result of this referendum has not only been harmful to the image of Britain worldwide, it has also dangerously emboldened a violent and racist element within our own country. I am writing to you as my representative in the Commons to urge you to take action before it is too late.

Opponents of Europe are complaining that MPs delaying the invocation of article 50 (or not acting on it at all) would be 'undemocratic.' In my opinion, this result is not democratic. This has never been how democracy has been conducted.  

Right back to its roots in ancient Greece and Rome, democracy has been about people appointing an expert to represent them - regardless of what Michael Gove might think. This expert then researches the issue on your behalf, with your interests in mind. Finally, they argue their case and make sure the people’s interests are represented as the experts decide together the course going ahead.  

We’ve heard much of the metaphor of the UK as a ship, in which case democracy would be making sure the heads of engineering and steerage pass on their team's concerns to the captain, who ultimately weighs up their advice and decides whether to change course or not. 

Democracy is not giving every idiot a steering wheel so we can 'show that iceberg who's boss.' 

As I said, I do not believe this result is democratic, it's mob rule, one of the things Democracy has always tried to avoid. At every stage, the referendum campaign has been about who could lie the loudest and most often. The news pushed a fear agena over immigrants, because scary news drags in viewers. UKIP and BF capitalised on it because it suited their agendas. Will Self's comment was that "Not all Brexiters are racists, but almost all racists will be voting for Brexit." I disagree with the conclusion that many or even most of the Leave voters were euro-bigots or racist themselves, but I do think that bigoted logic was combined with a media campaign against immigrants to convince a lot of people to vote Leave.  

This has all combined into this perfect storm in which the UK is now being compared to 1930s Germany, and incidents of racial violence have risen 57% since the vote. This is unacceptable, and as our elected representative, you have a duty to your constituents to voice our concerns in the house. 

There is a growing body of evidence that we don't necessarily have to accept this result. Even UKIP leader Nigel Farage said before the election that he would contest a 52-48 vote for Remain as 'undemocratic.' With increasing reports of leave voters who regret it, the new petition with over 4.2 million verified votes as of writing this, and just over 75% of MPs voting against the referendum in the first place, it's clear that very few of the population understood what they were voting for, especially since the second most popular Google search the day after the referendum was "What is the EU?" 

This is a situation where the experts we elected to speak on our behalf must do so. I've never been a believer in "Tough luck, live with it," especially now that so many of the Leave arguments have been proven untrue, or at best extremely misleading insinuations.

So that's why this is something I am passionate about, along with many others, and that's why I don't particularly feel like 'just accepting the result.' The stakes are far too high to equate this to stern parenting. If your children were about to walk off a bridge, you'd stop them for their own sake - especially if one of them was begging you for help, which is what this petition is begging of our MPs. 

I believe that the real thing to come out of this whole debacle is the amount of fact checking the media needs to do, and that the various statistical and media regulatory bodies need more power to take action against the press for their role in the misinformation. I would hope that an inquiry into this misinformation would be possible, and I would urge any MPs who still believe we are better off in Europe to force a vote in the house – among our appointed experts – to undertake such a vote before invoking article 50 of the Lisbon treaty. 

To have a situation where the news is nothing but Brexit for months, then the day after the vote the truth emerges and the public cries "But we didn't know!" is a shameful indictment of our political and media landscape, and we cannot act on the results of such a referendum. 

So to conclude, this is not a request for a revote. It is a request for an inquiry over whether the first vote was understood by the public. An inquiry must be conducted in light of the numerous resignations and admissions of misinformation from the politicians involved, and petitions and outrage from the misled votership following the announcement of the result. It was only a narrow majority, and the public clearly regret having put our economic recovery back five years and emboldened a frankly terrifying degree of racism based on misinformation. 

We cannot let this farce continue. And I think that this is an appreciable enough viewpoint that when this issue is next raised in parliament, I hope our MPs will vote to suspend invocation of article 50 while an inquiry is held into whether or not the country understood what the hell they were voting for. If the inquiry concedes that the referendum was based on mistruth, the result should not and can not be acted upon by Great Britain.

Yours hopefully,

_______ _______

Resident, _______ Constituency. 

Give it a go. I mean, what have you got to lose? It's all written there for you. It's even got links in it and everything! Fill in the blanks, look up your MP, and send it off.

Let's do some proper democracy this time.