A BBC Question Time audience member has railed against democracy being “lowered to mob rule” as a result of the upset following Donald Trump’s election, Brexit and Scotland’s vote to stay in the United Kingdom.
The outspoken contributor to the BBC’s flagship politics show was the star of the programme, which came from Stirling.
During a question about the US election, where panelists suggested voters were not fully aware of the consequences of their actions, the man in the orange jacket hit out at protests that have followed the three dramatic votes in the last two years.
He said:
“Democracy has been lowered to mob rule. When you don’t like the decision of a referendum, you disagree with it.
“The SNP should know this, because we had a referendum and we voted ‘no’ and they didn’t like it.
“We had a referendum on Brexit, they didn’t like it. Let’s go to court. We didn’t like Brexit.
“And now they don’t like Trump.”
He continued, pointing at no-one in particular but mainly the panelists:
“No democracy. Mob rule. Mob rule.”
Elsewhere, another audience member urged politicians to stop treating voters like “idiots” - suggesting anger stemmed from the electoral system not representing the true popular vote.
Hillary Clinton looks set to win more votes than Trump - but he has already won convincingly because of the way the Electoral College distributes votes by state. He said:
“I was a Remain voter and a lot of my family were Leave voters. They are not idiots, they are angry. They are angry because the electoral system does not reflect their views. Same in America.
“It’s an antiquated system. Ukip should have massive amount of representation in Parliament. They would have 100 votes or so. It’s important to underline the civility we’ve lost in this argument. People aren’t idiots.”