Johnny Mercer, the Tory MP and former army officer, elected in Plymouth in 2015, has taken to the streets in his constituency to ask people how they want him to vote. He voted Remain in the referendum while his constituency voted leave.
There is a clip of him wandering the streets on the BBC news website. He seems like a charming and approachable bloke, with an encouraging air of humility. His conclusion was that the exercise didn’t help much, those who wanted to leave still do, and those who wanted to remain still do. The good news Johnny is that by voting against May’s deal you can keep both sides happy(ish), though this does plunge us into a further ocean of uncertainty.
One of his constituents got it spot on - ‘you have a really tough job to do, but you applied for it. You have to do what you think is best’. Which sums up what representative democracy is meant to be about.