Quote Originally Posted by Monty92 View Post
But you would concede, at least, that the larger the margin required, the greater the chance of establishing whether or not a true majority opinion exists. I fully understand if you still think changing the margin required would be a bad idea (and probably on balance agree with you), but you must at the same time acknowledge that a 51-49 vote is as revealing of public opinion as a toss of a coin.
What is this 'true' majority of which you burble? There is a majority or there is not. And a vote on a given day is how we decide everything. Our votes are solemn and binding and we accept that whenever we walk into the voting booth. Political factions move mountains to get 'don't knows' to vote their way on any given day for precisely that reason. Whether they may change their minds subsequently is neither here nor there. Essentially, you are just trying to load the dice.
Also, in the context of this referendum, your argument presupposes that it was a level playing field. It was not. Remain had all the powers of the sitting PM and Chancellor, all the major parties, the Governor of the Bank of England, a £9m leafletting campaign, various acronyms and the President of the United States going into bat for it. In those circumstances, on could argue that a 52:48 vote for Leave in fact would have represented a vastly bigger margin in a more equal contest.