Brexit: Anyone who says democracy has not prevailed is arrogant

In case you were under any illusions about how well the Remain camp is taking the referendum result, take a quick look at this "Londependence" petition , which calls on the capital to become an independent state and re-apply for membership of the EU. It already has nearly 70,000 signatures.

"Let's face it - the rest of the country disagrees. So rather than passive aggressively vote against each other at every election, let's make the divorce official and move in with our friends on the continent," it says, displaying an obnoxious disregard for the democratic process.

For on Thursday we saw democracy in action. The people of Britain spoke out and told the government what they wanted for their country, and now we have the chance to shape our political future. It should be exciting. It should be the start of more political engagement and more debate.

But instead, Remainers just want to dismiss the whole thing as a terrible error on the part of the public. Labour MP Keith Vaz called the result "catastrophic" and accused voters of voting "emotionally rather than looking at the facts".

At the Glastonbury festival, singer Damon Albarn told the crowd "democracy has failed us because we were ill-informed. And I just want all of you to know that when we leave here, we can change that decision. It is possible".

Can they not hear how arrogant they sound? Within the younger generation, there are accusations of the older lot ruining everything for them. Outgoing president of the National Union of Students, Megan Dunn tweeted: "Never have I been so proud of the political decisions of our generation Never have I been angrier at those generations that have betrayed us." This is shockingly ageist. Why should a young person's vote be more important than anyone else's? One of the greatest freedoms we have is that we're all equal at the ballot box.

Petition for second referendum

Across the country the Remain camp is lamenting a vote which it believes was cast out of xenophobia or, pure stupidity. Yet it is them who are being imprudent because they have forgotten what democracy means. It means you don't always get what you want.

Leaving the EU signifies more democratic power for this nation, it means we will no longer be tied to an institution full of unelected and unaccountable bureaucrats. And we decided it in the most democratic way possible.

Yet already a petition has has emerged on Parliament's website calling for a second referendum. It reads: "We the undersigned call upon HM Government to implement a rule that if the remain or leave vote is less than 60 percent based a turnout less than 75 percent there should be another referendum."

The turnout for the referendum was 72.2 percent, that's higher than for last year's General Election (66.1 percent). Besides which, had the vote gone the other way and Remain had cinched it by four percent, would they have agreed to a second referendum? I don't think so.

The sheer audacity of trying to overturn the political will of 17,410,742 people because it wasn't how you wanted the vote to go is breath-taking. Follow that thinking through to its logical conclusion and we may as well scrap all elections and simply have an elite set of thinkers and experts tell all us little people what to do.

Effects felt across Europe

The surprise and head-shaking of the Liberal Left over the referendum result is reminiscent of the
after-effects of the 2015 General Election. But why such astonishment? There are already reports of calls for similar referenda in France, the Netherlands and Italy. A new Pew Research Center survey showed that Euroscepticism is on the rise among EU member countries. In France just 38 percent held favourable views towards the EU, and in Greece, it was as low as 27 percent.

Overwhelming majorities in 10 countries, including Germany, France and Italy, are unhappy with the way the EU deals with the refugee issue. The problem is not with the people, it is with the institution.

The 51.9 per cent of British citizens who voted to Leave the EU may have done so because of immigration, or perhaps because they think that the EU wastes their money. Or they may have, like me, decided that they value democracy and sovereignty over anything the Brussels clique has to offer.

It could be any or none of the above reasons. But it doesn't matter. The British public were asked a straightforward political question and they answered it. If the response wasn't what you wanted, well that's disappointing but it's also too bad.