Christian Toto is the editor of Hollywood in Toto, and a regular commentator on both politics and the entertainment industry.

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Clement Atlee, the British World War II Labour Party leader, and minister was once quoted by Margaret Thatcher, the conservative party leader of the 1970s and 1980s. They both agreed that referendums are ‘a device of dictators and demagogues’.

It’s not surprising that Atlee took that opinion

in the middle of World War II, Britain was fighting Germany, led by Hitler who had

legitimized his seizure of power by referendum. The Germans have learnt that lesson;

nationwide referendums are now prohibited by the constitution in Germany.

In contrast, in neighboring Switzerland,

which is mostly German-speaking, referendums

are a regular occurrence, an accepted part of the political process. Also,

referendums are very rare in the UK, they have only had three in their history,

while they

are a regular occurrence next door in Ireland, they’ve had more than one

per year so far this century.

If you have been paying attention, you

probably know that the most recent referendum in the UK, the Brexit referendum,

is causing them particular difficulty. Britain, for the next week or two, is

part of the EU. Two and a half years ago Britain voted to leave, they voted for

Brexit. Or to be more precise, they voted against continuing their membership.

Therein lies the problem. Britain being in the

EU was a known quantity, but people voted for an unknown. A whole host of contradictory

and impossible promises were made by people campaigning to leave the EU. Different

politicians, nominally allied to each other, promised that Britain would and would

not leave the single market that allows all EU businesses to trade with each

other without tariffs or regulatory barriers.