When it comes to referendums, it seems the devil is not so much in the detail of the question as the small print of the rules. Two examples of this came last weekend, both with potentially profound and lasting consequences.
In Hungary, citizens were asked by prime minister Viktor Orbán to vote on closing the door to refugees in defiance of the EU. More than 98% of those who voted supported Orbán’s proposition. But because more than half of the electorate stayed at home, the process was rendered constitutionally null and void.
Compare this with Colombia, where the electorate was asked to ratify the recently negotiated peace deal between the government and the Farc rebels. To the shock of many onlookers, the deal was rejected by a wafer-thin majority of 50.2% to 49.8%. The voter turnout was just 38% – but this time there was no clause to render the result invalid.
Our cover story considers the prospects for peace in Colombia in the aftermath of the vote, and inside the paper there’s also reflection on the Hungarian vote, which could have posed a serious challenge to the EU’s liberal traditions.
The prospects of peace in Syria seemed distant after the US and Russia gave up on efforts to co-operate over the way forward for the war-ravaged country. Relations between the two military superpowers are as frosty as at any time since the cold war, and it is hard to see how the situation can much improve, as our coverage reveals.
In the US, controversy has raged over leaked tax returns for Donald Trump, which suggest that the Republican presidential nominee may have avoided paying any tax for the last 18 years. With the election looming into view, can the Teflon-skinned Trump shrug this one off, or will this be one crisis too many for the US electorate to stomach?
From the UK we have a package of news from the Conservative party conference, where prime minister Theresa May at last revealed the government’s planned timetable for Brexit.
Readers who are squeamish about rodents may be tempted to flick swiftly past this week’s Review lead, but fear not: it contains encouraging news of a breakthrough in controlling the breeding of urban rats, which could reduce their numbers to manageable levels everywhere.
As well as our extensive reviews section, the Books pages have an interview with author Robert Harris about his new novel set within the mysterious confines of a papal conclave. From those cloisters of contemplation we hop across to the eardrum-popping lives of the world’s best drummers, who reveal why they do what they do.
On the back page, Ian Jack sees a glimpse of utopia in a stroll around King’s Cross, once the great industrial hub of Victorian London but now an expensively remodelled office, cultural and residential quarter. It’s an area of town that also happens to be home to the Guardian Weekly’s offices. I’m not sure I see Ian’s utopia from my window, but the thinning light does catch the waters of the Regent’s Canal quite beautifully at this time of year.
I hope you find this week’s edition equally illuminating – send us your thoughts here.
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