Britain sues for divorce – but has no idea what it wants.
Beware of what you wish for.
I am being asked by friends and colleagues about what happens next – nobody knows. 37% of the UK electorate has decided that it wants a divorce. When and on what terms is unclear – but it will not be amicable and Britain is already clearly an outsider.
Neither is it clear what future the Brexiters want.
Of course Farage had said that if the result was close there should be a second referendum, he is not saying that now.
“In a 52-48 referendum this would be unfinished business by a long way. If the remain campaign win two-thirds to one-third that ends it.” 16 May 2016
The 17,410,742 people who voted for Britain to leave need to remember the promises that encouraged them to vote Out. They will be broken. We need to hold those politicians to account if they fail to deliver on their promises.
The Leave side has many different visions. No one knows what divorce settlement they want let alone what the ‘spouse’ (all 27 of them) wants.
Already there are Brexiters who are arguing against what people thought they were voting for
Already Farage is distancing himself from the Leave campaign’s commitment to spend the money we no longer will send to the EU on the NHS.
Tory MEP Daniel Hannan back tracking on immigration
“People are grown up and they understand this isn’t something that can happen tomorrow.
“No one has ever suggested there is going to be no immigration.
“There will be EU nationals watching this programme now and I want to underline – no one has suggested any change in their status.
“In terms of migration from the EU the one thing we can do as a result is we will no longer be citizens of the European Union.
“If people watching think that they have voted and there is now going to be zero immigration from the EU they are going to be disappointed
“Of course there is still going to be immigration. There are still going to be people coming here to work and you will look in vain for anything the Leave campaign said at any point that suggested there would be any kind of border closure or pulling up of the drawbridge.
“All we’re asking for is some control over roughly who comes in.”
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One of the Brexiters is not keen to start divorce proceedings
Brexit campaigner Dr Liam Fox said: “A lot of things were said in advance of this referendum that we might want to think about again and that (invoking article 50) is one of them.
“I think that it doesn’t make any sense to trigger article 50 without having a period of reflection first, for the Cabinet to determine exactly what it is that we’re going to be seeking and in what timescale.
“And then you have to also consider what is happening with the French elections and the German elections next year and the implications that that might have for them.
“So a period of calm, a period of reflection, to let it all sink in and to work through what the actual technicalities are.”
The electorate for the referendum was 46,500,001
Remain 16,141,241 (34% of those who could have voted)
Leave 17,410,742 (37% of those who could have voted)
Remain 16,141,241 (48.1% of those voting)
Leave 17,410,742 (51.9% of those voting)
