The Will of the People
by Albert Weale, Polity Press, 121pp, £9.99
"This book was written in a hurry” are the opening lines here; they hardly inspire confidence. When the preface then refers entirely, and in negative terms, to Brexit, railing against anti-parliamentarian populism and the Daily Mail, the heart sinks even further. Do we really need more invective against “stupid, racist” Brexiteers?
The reader need not worry. The Will of the People is a calm, lucid and only sometimes irritating discourse, ultimately calling for a second referendum, on account of “the will of the people” not actually existing. On the surface, this is obviously true. Forty-eight per cent of British voters opted to stay in the EU. Weale, a professor of political theory at University College London, reminds us that not since 1935 has the UK returned to government a party with more than 50 per cent of the vote.
