An even more democratic thing would be to give the Commons a free vote on whether brexit should go ahead. The debate leading to the vote should be predicated entirely on what is now seen, after two and a half years of angst, to be in the country's best interests. This is too serious and long-term in its implications to be subject to tribalistic party politics. The 2016 vote was not binding on Parliament just because a bloke who likes to pretend to be sucked off by dead pigs said so and Article 50 can be overturned. We elect our MPs to make big decisions and we can chuck them out if we think they get it wrong. Calling referendums comes a very poor second. But at the moment there seems to be no other way out of this morass.