The root of the problem is Unrepresentative democracy made incarnate in the Rotten Parliament. Only when all the electorate (rather than swing voters in selected constituencies) have a reasonably precise choice can parliament return to ethical legitimacy. Referenda may be undesirable as such, but they become necessary when the political class fails, decade after decade, to reform itself. Political parties systematically distort voter choices. Whereas the filtering function to separate ill-conceived, poorly informed policies from their opposite could formerly only be performed by parties, in the 21st century we can move on. Everywhere and everyone indeed, in industry and society, has moved on except the political establishment. Both first-past-the-post and proportional representation depend on the premise that parties know best. They do not. Institutions that fail to regenerate themselves eventually die and must be replaced by new ones, always observing the principles of separation of powers and checks & balances.
The medium-term goal must be a mechanism of multiply transferable power of political attorney or “fuzzy democracy” Every vote counts, if not directly then by proxy; one votes for the best candidate one can identify, never the least bad. See different presentations at http://www.fuzzydemocracy.eu .
Deep democracy means enabling the voice of reasoned debate to win through, not merely allowing discussion and then ignoring the outcome of the discussion (example HS2). Deep democracy is self-correcting.
As soon as the EU adopts fuzzy democracy and disallows parties, I shall become a remainer.