<story><title>UK rejects opening borders to Ukraine refugees</title><url>https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/britain-may-ease-immigration-rules-ukrainian-refugees-sun-2022-03-07/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>gmac</author><text>&amp;gt; ultimately you have to respect the vote to an extent&lt;p&gt;Disagree here. A 52% majority is no basis for far-reaching, long-term constitutional change (even if the 52% _hadn&amp;#x27;t_ been systematically lied to, and the change in question _didn&amp;#x27;t_ represent pure national self-harm).</text></item><item><author>ricardo81</author><text>Folklore is that the Brexit vote won because of an open border policy(requirement) of being in the EU.&lt;p&gt;This should unpeel that Brexit voting demographic, after all there should be a limit in their reasons for refusing immigration into the country.&lt;p&gt;I voted the other way, but ultimately you have to respect the vote to an extent.&lt;p&gt;Perhaps if we are willing to supply armaments to Ukraine to defend their way of life (and by proxy ours), the least we can do is accept an appreciable % of people fleeing Ukraine. Purely IMO.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>blowski</author><text>Reading this thread is like reading a &amp;quot;tabs vs spaces&amp;quot; flamewar. I voted and strongly supported remain. We left. Let&amp;#x27;s move on (e.g. start a campaign to re-join or some other future) rather than re-hashing the same arguments over and over and over and over again.</text></comment>
<story><title>UK rejects opening borders to Ukraine refugees</title><url>https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/britain-may-ease-immigration-rules-ukrainian-refugees-sun-2022-03-07/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>gmac</author><text>&amp;gt; ultimately you have to respect the vote to an extent&lt;p&gt;Disagree here. A 52% majority is no basis for far-reaching, long-term constitutional change (even if the 52% _hadn&amp;#x27;t_ been systematically lied to, and the change in question _didn&amp;#x27;t_ represent pure national self-harm).</text></item><item><author>ricardo81</author><text>Folklore is that the Brexit vote won because of an open border policy(requirement) of being in the EU.&lt;p&gt;This should unpeel that Brexit voting demographic, after all there should be a limit in their reasons for refusing immigration into the country.&lt;p&gt;I voted the other way, but ultimately you have to respect the vote to an extent.&lt;p&gt;Perhaps if we are willing to supply armaments to Ukraine to defend their way of life (and by proxy ours), the least we can do is accept an appreciable % of people fleeing Ukraine. Purely IMO.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>eynsham</author><text>A &amp;lt;&amp;lt;50% majority of the population elected a parliamentary majority to allow India and Ireland independence; it would similarly now be the obvious mechanism to allow Scottish independence, and if there were to be an Act of Union would be the obvious mechanism there. An elected government has the right to pass legislation, and in Britain legislation can do and is everything. Cameron promised a referendum which, not in law but in practice, would be binding. We voted for the referendum, and voted the wrong way, alas.&lt;p&gt;Brexit is certainly national self-harm, but that’s the right of voters. If they don’t want to use their brains, or to prioritise ends alien to people like me, that’s also entirely within their rights. There is no national consensus that we should move to any other constitutional régime, and in the absence of one, absurd as they are, our Diceyan notions are not so beyond the pale that simply in themselves they are illegitimate. If I am prepared to recognise the Thatcher ministry as having a legitimate democratic basis—and I certainly am—then the far more limited damage of Brexit certainly doesn’t make me inclined to question these aspects of the British democratic setup. (I do have some sympathy to attempts to smuggle in a constitution through the backdoor via the Act of Union and Scots law though.)</text></comment>