His comments came shortly after an Electoral Reform Society (ERS) report revealed the referendum debate was riddled with \u201cglaring democratic deficiencies.\u201d<\/em> Voters were left feeling \u201cill-informed\u201d<\/em> and alienated from the major decision-making process.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is confusion, because we do not yet know the terms of Brexit,\u201d<\/em> former Labour leader Blair told French listeners.<\/p>\n Read more<\/p>\n \u201cWe did something a little odd with the referendum, if you like. We agree on moving home – it\u2019s like moving home – we have agreed on changing homes but we have not seen the other home. We have made an agreement to make the change, but at this moment we don\u2019t know the terms of Brexit. We do not know the costs and consequences, because we haven\u2019t had the negotiations.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Blair said he didn\u2019t agree with ex-PM David Cameron\u2019s decision to call a referendum, as he didn\u2019t think it was necessary. He does, however, see the result as reversible.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have had the referendum, we had the result, but now the debate continues, because as I said, we have not seen what Brexit means.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Asked whether, considering the slow pace of the Brexit process so far, Britain could remain in the EU after all, Blair replied: \u201cAt this moment it isn\u2019t probable, but it is possible.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Read more<\/p>\n According to the latest ERS study, voters on both sides of the EU debate found the tone of the \u2018Leave\u2019 and \u2018Remain\u2019 campaigns increasingly negative as polling day drew closer and appeared \u201cswitched off\u201d<\/em> by the intervention of political heavyweights.<\/p>\n \u201cThis report shows without a shadow of a doubt just how dire the EU referendum debate really was,\u201d<\/em> ERS chief exec Katie Ghose said.<\/p>\n \u201cThere were glaring democratic deficiencies in the run-up to the vote, with the public feeling totally ill-informed. Both sides were viewed as highly negative by voters, while the top-down, personality-based nature of the debate failed to address major policies and issues, leaving the public in the dark.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cIt offered a stark contrast to the vibrant, well-informed, grassroots conversation of the Scottish independence vote – a referendum that left a lasting legacy of ongoing public participation in politics and public life.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Ghose said the campaigning period ahead of the vote was far too short to foster a proper discussion and that misleading claims and figures were put forward \u201cwith total impunity.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s time for a root and branch review of referendums, learning the lessons of the EU campaign to make sure the mistakes that were made in terms of regulation, tone and conduct are never repeated.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Then-PM Cameron was found to have dissuaded voters from opting for Remain, despite arguing the pro-EU case. According to the ERS figures, 29 percent of Brits said Cameron made them more likely to vote Leave.<\/p>\n Former UK Independence Party (UKIP) leader Nigel Farage, however, was the reason behind 20 percent of voters going with Leave, aided by US presidential hopeful Donald Trump, who convinced nearly one in five to stand against the EU.<\/p>\n Scottish National Party (SNP) European spokesman Stephen Gethins said the government \u201cchose to ignore\u201d<\/em> concerns raised before and during the campaign about how the process was being conducted.<\/p>\n WATCH MORE:<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Via RT<\/a>. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission or license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Despite Prime Minister Theresa May\u2019s insistence that \u201cBrexit means Brexit,\u201d Europhile ex-PM Tony Blair told French radio station Europe 1 that Britain\u2019s EU membership could yet be saved. His comments came shortly after an Electoral Reform Society (ERS) report revealed the referendum debate was riddled with \u201cglaring democratic deficiencies.\u201d Voters were left feeling \u201cill-informed\u201d and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":265167,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-265166","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=265166"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265166\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/265167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n ![\"\u00a9](\"https:\/\/img.rt.com\/files\/2016.08\/thumbnail\/57c6c26ac4618849308b45bd.jpg\")
\n <\/a>\n<\/div>\n\u2018Root and branch review\u2019 of future referendums<\/h2>\n
\n ![\"\u00a9](\"https:\/\/cdn.rt.com\/files\/2016.08\/thumbnail\/57c6d40cc4618849308b4608.jpg\")
\n <\/a>\n<\/div>\n