Brexit: How A Confirmatory Vote (aka Second Referendum) Would Work

Much debate argument still regards a ‘second referendum’ (just point out here that I am actually with Frank Skinner on this one that we have had two referendum on EU membership already – counting the original – so technically another vote would be a third referendum, but I suspect that muddies the already murky waters more at this stage.

For now park the merits (or not) of another referendum and let’s take a look at how it would work, and resolve the situation once and for all.

I offer up this pearl of wisdom as an example to our political masters as to how easy life can actually be ….

A referendum needs to be binary, a simple yes/no option, and of course we would only address the concerns of the nation fairly if we offered three options on a confirmationary vote: leave with no deal, leave with a deal, or remain, so even for those with only a rudimentary understanding of binary it’s pretty obvious this isn’t a simple yes/no vote ….. or is it!?

First everyone would need to accept that the results of the vote would need to be 100% binding.

Second I think that we need to accept that while a second vote (or indeed no second vote) is at the very least a very volatile situation, if we can accept that a fair and balanced way forward giving everyone an option to state their preference then long term splits and grievances could be minimised.

So how would it work?

Ballot paper has the the three options above. Now for the sake of the theory I think we can avoid the detail of the what the Leave With a Deal actually entails as we still need to address that, but for the sake of moving forward let’s just play along with it being the Newball Mangers (to borrow Andy Kershaws description of Theresa May) Withdrawal Agreement.

Three options then, and everybody eligible can have their say.

First count: those that voted remain, against those that voted leave – which is a combination of the no deal and deal leave votes i.e. at this stage we don’t differentiate between how people want to leave, just if they favour leaving or remaining.

If the majority vote remain that is an end to it. Revoke Article 50 and move on.

If the majority vote leave then we count up all those voting for no deal and all those voting for a deal …… and the winner is: simples really, the leave option that got the most votes.