Second EU Referendum on a reformed EU
Voters living in free democracy have the right to change their minds.
In the past European countries have legislated for “second” referendums on EU treaties on a number of occasions and in circumstances where voters who have initially rejected an EU treaty have then went on to subsequently vote in favour of it in a second referendum (e.g. Denmark on the Maastricht Treaty, Ireland on the Nice Treaty and Ireland again on the Lisbon Treaty)
With all of aforementioned second referendums ultimately proving successful, why do voters change their mind in these repeat referendums? Although not having personally researched the reasons why voters may have changed their minds it is not unreasonable to conclude that the benefits gained from continued EU membership was at the forefront of many, if not most, of the voters minds.
Whilst an ardent supporter and advocate of having a second vote on the UK’s membership of the EU I also recognise that if one were to be held, without having implemented the result of the first EU referendum, there could be widespread civil unrest.
Therefore, in my opinion before any vote takes place it should be incumbent on the Government to at first seek a qualified and legally binding commitment from the EU to relook at Treaty change around ‘freedom of movement’. If achieved, not only would such a pre-condition address a major concern of Brexiteers but also remove a significant risk available to the ‘No’ side and so ably used against the ‘Yes’ side in the first referrndum