A dangerous, unpredictable precedent for the future

[original PM]

As long as you wear your cloth cap lad.

Exactly this. Though might not have left just yet, and least a workable plan would have been in place.

If instead of voting to leave we voted to ask the government to put together a decent deal we want from the EU if we did leave then absolutely nothing would have happened.

The vote forced the hand to try and do something.

[meridian]

If instead of voting to leave we voted to ask the government to put together a decent deal we want from the EU if we did leave then absolutely nothing would have happened.

The vote forced the hand to try and do something.

A decent deal according to who?

Personally, I believe there should have been two referendums, with the public invited to neither of them:

- referendum on the future trade relations, open only to company directors of companies with turnover (the turnover is only there to prevent people opening companies just for a vote). Nobody else has skin in the game, why should Joe and Jane working in a call centre get to decide whether U.K. Plc has an FTA or not?

- referendum on the political structure, open only to MPs and HoL. All the Brexiters complaining that they want laws made in the U.K., but nobody asked the politicians first whether that was what they wanted.

[Mordac]

A decent deal according to who?

Personally, I believe there should have been two referendums, with the public invited to neither of them:

- referendum on the future trade relations, open only to company directors of companies with turnover (the turnover is only there to prevent people opening companies just for a vote). Nobody else has skin in the game, why should Joe and Jane working in a call centre get to decide whether U.K. Plc has an FTA or not?

- referendum on the political structure, open only to MPs and HoL. All the Brexiters complaining that they want laws made in the U.K., but nobody asked the politicians first whether that was what they wanted.

1- Fair point, the EU don't care about the plebs, God forbid that they should have a say. Look at the inconvenience it caused last time.

2- They certainly don't want to be unemployed former politicians, which most of them would be eventually if we remain in the EU. We'll need a few of course, to run the things Brussels can't be bothered with. Education is a bit of a nightmare, they'll probably let us keep that.

[meridian]

1- Fair point, the EU don't care about the plebs, God forbid that they should have a say. Look at the inconvenience it caused last time.

2- They certainly don't want to be unemployed former politicians, which most of them would be eventually if we remain in the EU. We'll need a few of course, to run the things Brussels can't be bothered with. Education is a bit of a nightmare, they'll probably let us keep that.

Yes, exactly. Look at the inconvenience. And for what, for the vast majority of people? What practical benefit?

Meanwhile the ones that have to shoulder that inconvenience and cost (businesses, politicians) are the ones that are getting slated for having a view that, on balance, they would prefer not to leave.

Probably an analogy here about the arsonist complaining that the fire brigade are turning up to put the fire out.

[NotAllThere]

If instead of voting to leave we voted to ask the government to put together a decent deal we want from the EU if we did leave then absolutely nothing would have happened.

The vote forced the hand to try and do something.

No... the vote was intended to shut Tory Eurosceptics up and weaken Ukip. It backfired dramatically (from Cameron's point of view).

Once it had gone through, if a national, cross-party government had been set up, to deal with one of the most important events to happen in UK history, perhaps something that satisfied the majority of "the people" could have been put together. That majority made up of moderate remainers (perhaps 48%) and moderate brexiters (perhaps 52%).

Reversal of Brexit and Hard Brexit are both minority positions.

[Mordac]

No... the vote was intended to shut Tory Eurosceptics up and weaken Ukip. It backfired dramatically (from Cameron's point of view).

Once it had gone through, if a national, cross-party government had been set up, to deal with one of the most important events to happen in UK history, perhaps something that satisfied the majority of "the people" could have been put together. That majority made up of moderate remainers (perhaps 48%) and moderate brexiters (perhaps 52%).

Reversal of Brexit and Hard Brexit are both minority positions.

Agree with all of this, a tiny bit of common sense could have made all the difference. Trying to make any sort of deal with the EU is akin to herding cats, and anything which will cost them both money and humiliation is going to be nigh on impossible. Appealing to the hard-liners on both sides is going to get you nowhere.

[meridian]

Agree with all of this, a tiny bit of common sense could have made all the difference. Trying to make any sort of deal within the Tory Party Cabinet is akin to herding cats, and anything which will cost them both money and humiliation is going to be nigh on impossible. Appealing to the hard-liners on both sides is going to get you nowhere.

FTFY.

Doing a deal is the easy bit - there are several options available, we just need to choose one.