View of Athens from Pnyx, at dusk, 2015. To the left is Lycabettus, to the right Acropolis. Wikicommons/ C Messier. Some rights reserved.
The recent publication of Theresa May's Brexit deal incited a number of zealots in Parliament to throw various toys out of their prams so fast that it is hard to believe they had time to read it. It has also provoked a great clamour for a "people's vote" in another EU referendum.
One of the arguments offered in favour of a second referendum is that the people didn't know what they were voting for in June 2016. Now, it is claimed, we have the details, so voters will be better informed. The idea that more than a handful of voters would read and digest the 585-page withdrawal document, along with supplementary papers on the proposed future trading arrangements between Britain and the EU, shows that this line of argument is essentially spurious – promoted by those who simply want a different result from last time. They might get a different result from last time, but that brings dangers of its own, as many commentators have pointed out, for example Richard Shrimsley in the FT, (October 8, 2018).
