Interesting post by barndoor, although he's quite wrong to blame the EU for that list of 'ignored' referendums. They were not held by the EU. They were all called and held by the various countries listed, and it was the Danish and Irish governments that re-ran their referendums, and the French, Dutch and Greek governments that ignored theirs.
But I suspect barndoor is on to something nevertheless. Not that we will see a straight re-run of last week's referendum - the chances of that happening here are approximately zero. But we might see a referendum on the exit terms - potential Tory leadership candidate Jeremy Hunt is already trailing that idea. Or we might get a General Election in the autumn as a kind of 'proxy referendum'.
Here's Boris Johnson's article from yesterday's Telegraph:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/06/26/i-cannot-stress-too-much-that-britain-is-part-of-europe--and-alw/A key bit is this:
'British people will still be able to go and work in the EU; to live; to travel; to study; to buy homes and to settle down. As the German equivalent of the CBI – the BDI – has very sensibly reminded us, there will continue to be free trade, and access to the single market..... Yes, the Government will be able to take back democratic control of immigration policy, with a balanced and humane points-based system to suit the needs of business and industry.'Now in the real world - as opposed to on Planet Boris - we all know that the prospect of being part of the single market but not signing up to free movement of labour is for the birds - it ain't going to happen! But Boris has got to appear to be negotiating for it.
So a possible scenario is this: the new UK Prime Minister (Johnson, May, whoever) negotiates strongly for access to the single market while introducing immigration controls, but fails. Oh dear. Never mind, we've got the best deal we can, so we're putting it to the vote in a General Election, with a manifesto which includes the proposal that we leave the EU and join Norway and Iceland in the European Economic Area, thereby retaining access to the single market, but also retaining free movement of labour, and continuing to contribute to EU budgets, and continuing to be subject to the relevant areas of EU law, in social and market regulations, trade etc etc. It's not ideal, but it's the best deal we could get etc etc etc.
The trouble is, many Leavers thought they were voting for 'take back control', 'I want my country back' and (most ridiculous of all), 'more money for the NHS', so they won't like it.
A less likely twist on this would be that the Labour Party gets its act together, elects a credible leader, and fights this General Election on a Remain ticket. Maybe there could even be a pact between Labour and the LibDems (also Remainers, of course) not to stand against each other in any constituency. Although that really is getting into the realms of fantasy.....
Yes I know, this is all just idle speculation. But what else can you do? These really are the most extraordinary times.
