Should the UK use more referendums?

A referendum is a vote on a ballot question, which involves the Government asking all members of the eligible voting public to cast a vote to accept or reject a certain proposition.
Once a referendum result is in, the Government reserves the right to make the final decision. Whilst the Government is likely to respect voters’ wishes and let the referendum result carry the day (particularly if it called the referendum in the first place), the Government can still choose to set it aside.

One reason why people believe the UK should use more referendums is because they increase participation in democratic action. This is due to people believing that their opinion will matter more due to the consequence of the referendum being directly up to the public's choice. Furthermore, this could result in the public wanting to know more about politics; in order for them to understand about the subject; so that their vote in the referendum will represent their beliefs more accurately. 
However, this can be argued against due to not a lot of people understanding politics to an appropriate extent and therefore placing a vote which doesn't truly represent Britain.

Another reason why referendums are useful is because they can help to conclude a decision which the government is divided upon. This is extremely useful because it results in the public's voice being listened to more compared to just the government and will mean the public can be more happy about the outcome of the referendum if the government agree to go along with it.
On the other hand, if the voter turnout is low for certain referendums, people may argue that this result does not reflect the view of the majority and therefore, this defeats the idea of the government being controlled by the people due to not everyone caring and therefore not voting. This could be further effected by people who don't really understand politics and therefore just vote for any answer for the sake of it.

Furthermore, one big factor effecting the argument on whether more referendums should be held is that they cost lots of money to hold. This can be shown by the referendum on changing the voting system from first past the post which cost tax payers £75 million, according to the election watchdog. Official estimates before the national poll in 2011 suggested that the final bill was around £100 million. This is an extreme problem held towards referendums considering the amount they cost and the fact that a lot of people may not even decide to vote due to them being uninterested in the matter.

In conclusion, I believe that the UK should hold more referendums. This is because they involve a more direct opinion from the public and therefore more people will want to become involved in politics to voice their beliefs. Furthermore, they result in issues being solved in the UK which lots of people have a problem with, and are therefore solved in a more fair and direct manor because the people are the ones who decide on what happens (as long as the government don't overall the final decision).

Is the UK truly democratic?

Democracy is a general description of a political system that is organised on the basis that government should serve the interests of the people. It is expected that citizens should also influence decisions or make decisions themselves. As well as this; the government should be accountable under a democratic society. The UK is regarded as beholding democracy however current trends suggest increasing political apathy have begun to question whether the UK political system is truly democratic. The UK is regarded as being highly democratic in that all elections are free from bias and interference. However, the First Past the Post electoral system undermines the belief of free and fair elections in that smaller parties have no realistic chance of winning. Furthermore, there is only one representative of each constituency to express the ideologies of all constituents, this means that the constituents are under represented. 

Evidently, our democracy is far from flawless. People may argue that Britain could be made more democratic through a proportional electoral system. However, this may confuse voters and result in weaker government. People also believe that compulsory voting could improve our democracy. But this could create careless votes by people who are not interested in politics and therefore this would be an inaccurate representation of what the population wants. Also, people believe that more referendums could be the answer, but this may be subject to people who do not know what is best for the country, and even if this did occur, only those who set the agenda of the referendum are those who possess the power and have the overall decision.

In addition, the UK is not democratic in that the party that is in government does not have any legal obligations to legislate the popular policies of their manifesto programme, however the fact that the executive is held to account by legislature means that any undemocratic behaviour is publicized. For example, the Liberal Democrats main vote winner was the policy of not increasing the university fees, the fact that Nick Clegg then agreed to the decision of tripling university fees, has had terrible effects on his party. The people that voted for the Liberal Democrats on that basis are now informed, free press publicizes immoralities, which therefore results in them becoming unlikely to be voted in again anytime soon.

In conclusion, this means we don't truly have much choice in political parties. Consensus politics means that the three main parties are becoming increasingly similar and we are left with very little choice and people vote tactically therefore, not for the party they truly want in power, but for a party that is better than the one that is most similar to the main parties ideologies. Many voters see the parties they wish to be in office too small, therefore deem it futile to engage in political participation and vote.

What happened in the most recent UK election

The most recent general election was held on 7th May 2015 and was the 56th parliament election of the United Kingdom. The voting throughout the UK took place in 650 constituencies where each county voted to elect one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons. This was held on the same day throughout England apart from Greater London.

Polls and commentators predicted that the outcome of the vote would be extremely close and could result in a second hung parliament (as was in 2010 election). Furthermore, Conservative votes were extremely underestimated shown by opinion polls. Having been in coalition with the Liberal Democrats party since 2010, the Conservatives won 330 seats before and 36.9% of the vote, compared to the recent election where the Conservatives won a working majority of 12. After the surprise, The British Polling Council started an inquiry into the large difference between the opinion poll and the final outcome. This election was the first time the Conservatives had won a majority vote since the 1992 general election.

In addition, the Scottish National Party have had a surge in support since the 2014 Scottish independence referendum and became the third largest party by winning 56 of the seats in Scotland out of the 59, which were mostly at the expense of Labour. Also, the Liberal Democrats had their worst result since 1970 and held only 8 seats compared to their previous 57. However, the Green Party won their highest ever share of the overall vote with 3.8%, as well as the growing support for the UK Independence Party which came third in terms of votes with 12.9% but only won 1 seat.