I agree with much of what you wrote there, Nigel. (I take it as read that you also included elections as expressing the will of the people.)

The important distinction we both draw is the distinction between the will of the people which varies constantly day by the day and the measurement of it at specific points (referendums, elections).

But that simply reveals how unreliable the idea of the expressed will of the people is. Take the measurement a month earlier or later and the results will be different. Use all your techniques of manipulation and persuasion, like Cambridge Analytica and AggregateIQ, and "the will" can be changed at the time that matters - at least, that is the whole rationale of advertising. Which is another reason that a simple majority vote is a bad idea for referenda.


But that is only part of the subject. All parties use private pooling all the time to help formulate their policies, and those are also attempts to measure "the will of the people". So we get back to whether Liam Fox goes with the will of the people, as estimated imprecisely via all sorts of focus groups and polling, or just the will of Liam Fox. And that difficulty is at the heart of our political system.