Next Conservative party leader.

[Mark Benson]

FiF said:

And there's the problem, bang slap, compromise.

This thing was divisive before the vote, but after it, the losing side realised that Cameron had got one thing dead right in his sayings on the vote, namely this being a once in a lifetime decision.

Yep they realised that was bang on, they'd been hanging their hats on historical evidence of referendum votes that the "status quo" option always has the advantage, as does the option recommended by the Government of the day as the public think well they must know better than us, the great and the good will be better informed. By hell did they play that "great and the good" card over and over, and still lost.

After the day of being stunned, they realised that it really was a once in a lifetime decision as if we left there was not a fart in an air freshener factory chance of rejoining, ever. Bridges burnt in so many ways.

So no accepting the result and genuinely working with it in the hope of something turning up to their liking was a non starter. Nope it was now an scheme to overturn the result. Problem was the public have been patient, seen their manouevring for what it is, we now see all the calls for further public votes to be simply what was always suspected, despite the tiresomely frequent protestations of desire for fairness, LibDem and People's Vote leader have both completely scuppered those in recent times and shown the hard set determination to overturn EURef16 result by whatever means even ignoring any vote which doesn't meet their desired outcome.

That has led to the position that, just to misapply Newton's Third Law fir a moment, because there is this clear force to Remain that will not compromise, another equal and opposite force to Leave at all costs exists, and partly as virtually all trust has now been lost, some of that is undoubtedly due to a got a "F*ck you" faction within it. Who can blame them?

Therefore the 'silent majority' who are prepared to compromise and be pragmatic are being held to ransom by these extremists; and that includes the EU. By trying to paint the UK into a corner, ably assisted by the worst PM in my lifetime, they have also painted themselves into a corner, and that's why I reckon chance of EEA/EFTA is gone, especially when considering the time frame we now have. Back to the we are where we are moment.

Defeatist, maybe, despondent, probably, on the other hand I do believe Britain, wherever we end up does have the wherewithal to come out of this ultimately better off.


Edited simply due to typos and fat finger moments.

Edited by FiF on Thursday 25th July 08:13

I wonder though, if Boris can maintain the 'Leave on 31st Oct at all costs' line for a while, then sometime in October say something along the lines of "Look, we tried but the previous lot tied our hands so much that we need to take a first step, which I understand doesn't completely fulfil the promise but does free us from x,y and z" with the promise of further 'sunlit uplands' in a year or two, whether we might see a softening of at least some of the headbangers on both sides.

Maybe I'm an optimist, but to me Boris has the chance to appear credible about Brexit which should rebalance the overwhelming feeling among both sides that eventually Brexit will be stopped.

For the 'overturn Brexit/People's vote' crowd, a dawning that we have a government who are not now aiding them in trying to delay and defuse Brexit and that despite all their predictions of doom we're still trading and in the meantime we're starting to make trade agreements with third parties (CANZUK would be a good one to bag early).

For Leavers, seeing the process at least set in motion with some decisiveness will defuse the feeling that 'they' will never let it happen. A cabinet that has the will to make it happen but the understanding that trade agreements need time to formulate and agree. Seeing the negotiations happen and hearing positive messages about trade deals being agreed would go a long way to convince a lot of people that there will be an end to this and the end will see us out of the EU.