Quotes About Referendums

There's much more we can be doing in Parliament, we could be giving more power back to people at local government level, through local referendums.

Referendums are designed to get round parliamentary government, and people only demand referendums when they think they can't get a majority in parliament. Mussolini was the most brilliant practitioner of referendums.

Yet we have learned from the Scottish independence vote and with Brexit what referendums do to our politics. They foster bitter divisions in ways that parliamentary elections tend not to do.

There were a number of referendums in '98 that most of the things I voted for passed. That's very satisfying when you feel that most of the country is in step with your views.

Referendums and elections are always about human feelings, not about human rationality.

Sin embargo, para lo bueno y para lo malo, las elecciones y los referéndums no tratan de lo que pensamos. Tratan de lo que sentimos.

Referendums and elections are always about human feelings, not about human rationality. If democracy were a matter of rational decision-making, there would be absolutely no reason to give all people equal voting rights – or perhaps any voting rights at all.

You know, he added reflectively, we've got a much easier job now than we should have had fifty years ago. If we'd had to modernise a country then it would have meant constitutional monarchy, bicameral legislature, proportional representation, women's suffrage, independent judicature, freedom of the press, referendums . . . What is all that? asked the Emperor. Just a few ideas that have ceased to be modern.

The danger was that referendums might promote irresponsible government, in which ministers promised referendums for party purposes while disclaiming responsibility for the results. 'The new doctrine', Thatcher complained, was 'to pass the buck to the people'.

I do a lot of referendums. They can't talk back. They don't have wives. They don't have friends who tell you how to run the campaign. They are supported by special interests, so there's a lot of money in them.

There was so much – so many tests and tasks, so many tiny referenda.

In referendums in 2005, the Dutch and the French electorates rejected the European Constitution, which aimed to turn the E.U. into a genuine state. But Brussels refused to take no for an answer. It went ahead with its plans for a constitutional treaty, notwithstanding the people's opposition. Brussels thinks it knows better than the people.

There's much more we can be doing in Parliament, we could be giving more power back to people at local government level, through local referendums.

Brexit wasn't the European people's first cry of revolt. In 2005, France and the Netherlands held referendums about the proposed European Union constitution. In both countries, opposition was massive, and other governments decided on the spot to halt the experiment for fear the contagion might spread.

We should, through civic referendums, determine our own pathways and political status after 2047, because in this lies the future of our democratic movement. If Hong Kong could exercise democratic self-governance under the sovereignty of China, it would not be necessary for us to take this step on the path toward independence.