Leaderboard

1853 to 1857, 5 and 10 Centimes struck in Marseilles under supervision by Heatons, showing what they could do in bronze whilst everyone else was producing copper.....

If they can't manage this they ought to at least send printed catalogues out to clients.

This business of 'not knowing' what we voted for is a very disingenuous argument. Firstly, without undertaking the negotiations in advance there was no way in which the position we are in today could have been predicted with sufficient accuracy for us to have made an 'informed' decision. In other words there's no way we could have had all the information to make an 'informed' decision. What we did have, and is conveniently forgotten by all those who make this argument is the 'leaflet' from the government. Take a careful look at that and it is very clear that the pros and cons of leaving were laid out, as were the risks. No mention of the Irish border, but otherwise there was enough in there to allow anybody to make as informed a decision as they could with the knowledge available at the time. The other item of interest is on the last but one page, where it says in plain English 'This is your decision. The Government will implement what you decide.'

I'm no lawyer, but it sounds like a fair point, worthy of consideration. Or to look at it from a slightly different angle - if we had left on 29th March without a deal, nobody could have said that democratic principles had not been scrupulously observed. Parliament were unable to endorse the deal, so we leave without one, in accordance with the democratic will of the electorate.

Is that any different to parties holding up manifestos for election only to not carry out the promises contained within, or the future direction the EU is heading? They may as well be blank envelopes because no-one knows for certain where we are headed. I wonder whether the same view would have been considered if we had remained, the EU is ever changing, would you have endorsed a referendum every few years on whether we want to continue with our membership because we would be more informed about the EU relationship every few years? The reason why anyone chooses to vote in a particular way is of no importance to anyone other than the individual voting. My vote carries no more weight than any other individual and if their reason for choosing to leave or remain was completely based on nothing more than them ticking a box at the last minute on the flip of a coin in the booth, I would have no issue with that. It is their prerogative Surely true democracy is being given a choice by representatives and then those representatives delivering the choice that received the majority of votes. I agree that being informed is a sensible thing to do, but do you really expect everyone to be informed or even care about the decision that is being made. I expect a good proportion of voting in general elections is done by nothing more than choosing a least favourite party, or a tribal alliance to a particular party, this does not seem to be people making well informed judgements either. The system is not perfect but at least everyone has the feeling that they have an input into the system.