A second vote is the best way out of the Brexit chaos

I think it’s time for Britain to bite the bullet and vote again

British Prime Minister Theresa May suffered a series of setbacks on the deal she negotiated for Brexit—the process for exiting the European Union. Nobody seems to know what the people want now, so the only way to know for sure is to ask them.

Hi everyone, welcome back to Plain English, episode number 113 for Thursday, December 20, 2018. Today’s episode transcript is available online at PlainEnglish.com/113 and of course it has all the translated content from English to Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, French, Chinese, and Japanese.

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Britain should vote again on Brexit

We’ve covered Brexit in several past episodes of Plain English, and after the last one, episode 105, which is available at PlainEnglish.com/105, I said I wanted to explore the question of whether Britain should take another vote on Brexit. At the time, I wasn’t sure whether I thought that was a good idea or not. But the confusion and chaos that have unfolded since then make another Brexit vote the best way out of this mess.

Let’s start by setting up the issue and then we’ll go through the upsides and downsides of a second vote. As you probably know, the British people voted on June 23, 2016 to leave the European Union. Since no country had actually left the EU before, it wasn’t clear at the time what an exit path would look like. The only thing that people knew back then is that any country looking to leave would have to negotiate an exit treaty with the countries that would remain—and that the exiting country would have two years to do that after officially declaring its intention to leave. The UK government officially notified the EU of its intention to leave in March 2017, starting a two-year countdown clock.

In the time since then, the British government and the EU negotiated an exit agreement. It was the best deal that the British Prime Minister Theresa May could get—but it didn’t leave anyone happy back home in the UK. Before the deal can be officially agreed, it has to pass the British Parliament and be approved by all EU countries. The deal was scheduled for a vote in Westminster last week, but it was clear that it wouldn’t pass. So rather than suffering an embarrassing defeat, the prime minister canceled the vote. The problem is, many people think the deal Mrs. May negotiated is worse than Britain’s current arrangement with the EU—but the people said in a referendum that they wanted to leave. What to do?

The prime minister says she got the best deal possible, but the Parliament rejected it. Doing nothing would be a terrible risk; listen to Episode 80 for more on why that would be so. Now the idea of taking a second vote—something that had just been whispered about earlier—is now being openly debated.

There are upsides and downsides to taking a second vote. The most obvious upside is that the prime minister and the Members of Parliament are unable to agree on a way forward on the most important event in Britain’s history since World War II. If the representatives of the people can’t do their jobs and forge a consensus that respects the initial vote and broadly reflects the will of their voters, then the voters deserve a chance to clarify the matter in a second vote.

There is another upside. When the first vote was taken, people didn’t know what leaving the European Union would look like. They were voting for something that wasn’t clearly defined or understood at the time—it was unknowable. Now, they know the stark choices they face in leaving. Now that it’s known what leaving means, do the British people still want to leave the European Union? A second referendum would answer the question for good. Three former prime ministers have called for a second vote. What’s not to like?

Well, there are some downsides. First and foremost, taking a second vote would be seen as disrespecting the results of the first vote. Millions of people thought long and hard about the question. The two sides made their arguments. A vote was taken, and the people decided. Taking a second vote now would not only fail to respect the results of the first referendum, it could cause a lot of people who voted to leave to think the government was canceling their first vote. If the people already spoke, how democratic would it be to call a second vote? A cynic might say the government would just keep calling new votes until the people voted the so-called right way.

It’s also not clear what the question would be on a second vote. If the question is, “Should Britain stay or leave?” and if the people say “leave” again, that still would not resolve today’s biggest dilemma—whether they want to take Prime Minister May’s deal, or leave without a deal at all. If the people vote to stay, many of those who originally voted to leave will feel that they were cheated out of their first vote.

That is a real risk, but I think it’s a risk Britain has to run. The 51.9 percent who voted to leave in 2016 could not have known what leaving would actually look like. Now that the stark choices are clear, would that bare majority still favor leaving? The people’s representatives have been no help in answering that question. Whether or not they approve the deal, they are committing Britain to an irreversible change in its relationship with the entire world. Rather than guessing what the people want on such an important matter, they should go back and ask them. Britain should bite the bullet and vote again.

Those who argue that a second vote would disrespect the result of the first vote have a point. But a democracy should also be able to change its mind. As much as you should respect the first vote, you also have to respect the people who have had second thoughts after seeing this chaotic process play out. If enough people have changed their minds, then Britain should reverse course and stay in the EU. An EU court said that would still be an option under EU law if Britain so chose. If the people still want to leave, then it should be on them to choose whether to take this deal or risk crashing out without a deal.

I think after the main story in one of those prior episodes, I said, “What a mess.” And that sentiment still applies. I think the main lesson should be that any big, momentous change in a country’s history shouldn’t be approved by 51.9 percent of the people on a single vote. I think they should have set up two votes from the beginning—or at least required more than a majority to approve such a big change. Let me know if you agree with my opinion that Britain should vote again—I’m interested in hearing what you all think. Send me a note to [email protected].

Today I want to say hi to Kátia from Sao Paulo, Brazil. I want to read you exactly what she wrote, because what she wrote to me is exactly the reason why we do this program, JR and I, in the format we do—which is at a slower speed than normal. Here’s what Kátia said: “Hi Jeff, I’m Kátia from Sao Paulo, Brazil, and I need to say thank you so much for your podcast. I always had problems with English and heard lots of times ‘oh, you need to watch TV and movies in English, to hear songs and read the lyrics, so you learn it easily.’ But every attempt turned into a frustration and I almost gave up. The result was always the same: in a few minutes my brain just stopped paying attention because I couldn’t identify more than two or five words in each phrase, because it goes so quickly. I can remember feeling anger and failure. But I did try listening to Plain English and it really worked.”

Kátia, listen, this is why we do it. This nails it. And this was my exact experience in Spanish. You know the words, I know you do, or at least most of them. You’d recognize them one by one. You’d recognize them written on a page. But when they’re all put together really fast, your brain just doesn’t have the time it needs to recognize each word—even if you know each word. You just need the practice of hearing a word, recognizing it, hearing a word, recognizing it, over and over and over. So listen, Kátia and everyone else in the same situation, one of these days you won’t need to listen to Plain English because you’ll have the practice and you can follow at the full speed. But until that day comes, you can count on JR and me every Monday and Thursday to be right here with you, at the speed that’s right for you.

Hey speaking of every Monday and Thursday, if you haven’t joined our email list, you’ll get bonus content every time a new episode comes out—that extra content would be additional English vocabulary words, links to English articles, and a summary of every episode. Plus a special message from me every now and then. Check it out at PlainEnglish.com/mail and enter your details. PlainEnglish.com/mail.