Persevere with this tricky column (HERE) as it is a criticism of the recent trend towards direct democracy as opposed to the traditional British 'representative' model. Remember, direct democracy is not just referendums. A looser definition is about directly influencing MPs to make decisions like 'delegates' or 'robots' as it were, rather than MPs using their own brains to decide on issues. I suspect many Tory rebels in the Commons vote on Monday are simply invoking the desires of their constituents to cover up and embarrassingly damaging anti-EU trend in the Conservative party. By implying direct influence from constituents, rebel MPs on Monday could effectively argue, "...well...we'd like to vote along with the party leadership, really we would, but it wouldn't be right given what our constituents want." I suspect that, such MPs would not be so willing to listen to their constituents if they started demanding things the MPs didn't want. In that instance, such MPs would may say, "...well...we'd like to listen to our constituents, really we would, but you see we've got to use our own brains, even if it's unpopular. Just like Edmund Burke said - we're not mere delegates!"
Yes, that is an Edmund Burke t-shirt and no, I haven't got one.
