WHAT is the point of a referendum if people will not accept the result?

Ever since the 19th of September 2014 when Alex Salmond stepped down with the words “the dream shall never die” the hunt for the excuse to hold a second independence poll has been on.

Now with the EU Brexit shambles charging on chaotically unabated the same thing is happening.

Willie Rennie this week in the Holyrood chamber urged  the SNP to back calls for a referendum on the outcome of the Brexit negotiations between the UK and EU.

This is the same as a second referendum. Willie and others hope that enough people will take the opportunity to change their mind and therefore stop the UK leaving the EU after all.

For someone who repeatedly calls on Nicola Sturgeon to respect the result of the 2014 vote this is hypocritical.

On each occasion we have seen politicians and the most ardent of campaigners refusing to accept the will of the majority.

Refusing to accept they fought a good fight, put up the arguments and the people decided and the outcome was not what they wanted.

In both cases politicians are willing to use whatever justification necessary and available to them to undermine the legitimacy of the original result.

Some people argue that if Scotland had voted yes in 2014 there would be no turning back and no ability to hold a second referendum.

The argument is that only the independence supporters refuse to respect democracy.

But the Brexit aftermath and calls for a second vote under the guise of deciding on the negotiations, show this not to be the case.

What are the chances of someone like Willie Rennie or another no campaigner starting a campaign in 2015 on the outcome of negotiations to leave the UK.

Pretty high I would venture.

Similarly had the EU vote gone the other way and the vote was to remain, would Nigel Farage put down his pint and stub out his fags and give up his man of the people act?

I very much doubt it.

Unlike elections the referendums we have had in 2014 and 2016 were the purest way of determining what the country wanted on the specific issues.

There is no gerrymandering or Electoral College systems to favour one outcome or another.

When the public tells politicians news they don’t want to hear they don’t always like it.

Maybe the next time we have a referendum there should be a time limit put on when the question can be put again.

It is the people who decide and when that principle is undermined by politicians by whatever means trying to thwart their will it is dangerous.

The idea of democracy is the people decide and tell politicians what they want not the other way round.

And because the people will disagree on pretty much everything, the majority rules. Anything else is some form of dictatorship.

As Winston Churchill once said “Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others.”