David Cameron – Kevin Telfer

An often overlooked problem of the whole Brexit referendum is not the result, but the mechanism that was used to achieve it. The truth is that the United Kingdom is not used to referendums and that has meant that at least part of the crisis that has ensued from the 2016 vote has been how to interpret, contest and implement the result.

Only three referendums have ever been held which have covered the whole of the United Kingdom, including the 2016 Brexit referendum. Not only that, but our first past the post electoral system means that the national result at general elections is actually only ever an aggregated result of all the separate constituency votes. In other words, the UK has a highly localised electoral system – and there is very little precedent for any sort of meaningful national vote unlike in many other countries where there are, for example, presidential elections and proportional representation on a national basis (parties are awarded seats on the basis of their percentage of the national vote) .

Continue reading “The problem with referendums”

About me

I am an author and journalist with an interest in all kinds of stories and a special love for the natural world, literature, history, music and wine. I live on the edge of the New Forest.

My book commemorating the 70th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, The Summer of ’45: Stories and Voices from VE Day to VJ Day begins with the signing of the German surrender to the Western Allies in Reims on 7 May. The Summer of ’45 is a ‘people’s history’ which gathers voices from all levels of society and from all corners of the globe to explore the four months following that surrender that would dictate the order of the world for decades to come.

My debut novel Indrakhani Pass is available as a Kindle ebook. It is an adventure story set in the Indian Himalayas.

I am the author of a number of non-fiction books including Peter Pan’s First XI, about J. M. Barrie’s cricket team the Allahakbarries, and The Remarkable Story of Great Ormond Street Hospital.

I co-wrote Grand Designs Abroad with television presenter Kevin McCloud and have helped Dame Vera Lynn and her daughter Virginia Lewis-Jones tell the story of Dame Vera’s time singing in Burma during the Second World War.

I have also co-written two books about low-energy buildings called earthships with Mischa Hewitt. The second, and most up-to-date, of these is Earthships in Europe, which you can buy though the Brighton Earthship, which Mischa helps to run.

Using the pseudonym Milton Crawford I wrote The Hungover Cookbook, which has been translated into Dutch, Finnish and German and has sold more than 200,000 copies worldwide. The second book in the series is The Drunken Cookbook and the third is The Lover’s Cookbook.

I have written articles for publications including the Guardian, the Telegraph, The Sunday Times, the Idler, the Architects’ Journal, Green Building Magazine, Grand Designs magazine and BBC Who Do You Think You Are? magazine.

I have also been the news editor for the Media Society, a script consultant for BBC drama Lark Rise to Candleford, and an award-winning digital copywriter, winning the PR Week award for best in social and digital media in 2011 for a groundbreaking project with the RAF Benevolent Fund.