It’s official: the EU referendum debate left voters totally in the dark.
The final result could not have been clearer. But the actual campaign was anything but. Today we’ve set out what went wrong – how people from both sides of the EU debate found the experience top-down, negative and personality-dominated – but more importantly, how to make referendums better in the future.
We’re proud to launch our definitive analysis of the EU referendum debate, ‘It’s Good to Talk: Doing Referendums Differently After the EU Vote’. Because now that the dust is starting to settle, we need to learn the lessons from the EU campaign.
So today, we’re calling for a root-and-branch review into how we do referendums in the UK, with nine key recommendations on how to ensure voters get the debate they deserve in any future vote
From giving an official body the power to censure claims that are misleading, to ensuring grassroots citizen involvement at every stage of the process, we’ve laid out the ‘referendum reforms’ that are needed to prevent us making the same mistakes again.
We hope you find the report interesting and useful. Instead of leaving voters out in the cold, together we can make sure that future referendums offer the kind of informed and engaging debate we need. Thanks for your support.
Best wishes,
Katie Ghose,
Chief Executive,
Electoral Reform Society
