On Tuesday this week, a few hours in advance of Theresa May trying and failing again to get her EU withdrawal agreement through Parliament, Cranleigh Sixth Form Politics students ran their own ‘meaningful’ vote referendum in the dining hall. All students and staff were invited to vote in this referendum which put forward three options:
- Leave the EU with no deal
- Accept Theresa May’s deal
- Remain in the EU
There was a huge buzz around the polling booths as the vote commenced. Politics students were on hand to talk through the different options with voters who wanted to know more about the different implications that these options could have. There was a large turnout for this important exercise in democracy, with 320 students and 93 members of staff casting their votes.
The votes were then counted under the watchful eyes of returning officers Mr Leeke and Mrs Constable, and the result was a resounding win for the ‘remain’ option, with 59% of the vote. In 2nd place was Theresa May’s deal with 24%, and with ‘No Deal’ coming last with only 17% of the vote. This was not too dissimilar to the original school referendum held in June 2016, where Cranleigh backed remain by over 70%. The slight drop in this was due to a number of voters switching over to Theresa May’s deal this time around.
This was an excellent opportunity for all students across the school to experience taking part in a referendum, and gave our Sixth Form politicians a fantastic insight into the logistics around organising and running a referendum. With the current political deadlock at Westminster set to continue, it may not be long until our Sixth Formers are voting again, but this time in an actual general election or national referendum.
Please visit the Cranleigh Politics blog to read more up to date political insight from our students on both UK and Global political affairs.
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