Leaving the EU

This is a link to a petition on the UK government website, calling for Parliament to debate an orderly withdrawal from the EU.

It currently (7th of August) appears to be gathering only about 2,000 signatures a day, which may reflect the capacity of the server rather than the level of public interest. According to opinion polls, about 80% of the UK electorate supports the broad aims of the petition, even including nearly half of all Liberal Democrat members, but almost no Liberal Democrat party officials, MPs or Parliamentary candidates, which dislocation has interesting implications for the party's future.

This is not the only petition on the site, where results are somewhat askew compared to the response one would expect from the British public. Regardless of whether one supports a particular petition or not, Medawar hopes that the published results are indeed honest. Because if they are being manipulated, as night follows day, the manipulators will be found out, and given the current mood of the British public towards the political elite, they won't get off at all lightly.