Second Brexit referendum call grows louder but risks abound

Without rules, a referendum is little more than an invitation to a collective roar of anger and is open to abuse by politicians, says Ngaire Woods.

Now that British prime minister Theresa May, facing certain defeat, has postponed the parliament’s vote on the deal she concluded with the European Union last month on the United Kingdom’s departure from the bloc, the case for a “people’s vote” — a second Brexit referendum — is gaining ground. But is a referendum really the right mechanism for settling political issues that the people’s elected representatives cannot or will not?