I shall be on leave in late June, so today I have applied for my postal vote. If there’s a vote to be had, I shall exercise my democratic right, as fought for by our predecessors.

I shall vote. But truth be told, on this occasion, I don’t think I should have a vote. Referendums just ain’t the way to do things. Every few years. the electorate gets the chance to vote for a parliament that should pull together a coherent plan that integrates policies in all those areas where a government exercises power. Once they have elected that government, they should leave them to it and should not have the chance to vote on one particular decision or policy. An electorate’s decision on one issue may be completely at odds with all other policies, with all the dysfunction that that implies. Put it this way, if you had a referendum on the base rate of tax, and then a referendum on free tertiary education provision on the same day, you can bet that the outcome would a mandate for a low tax rate that could not support the mandate for tertiary education free at the point of provision.

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