[corford]

The joke of it is, Cameron called the foolish referendum in a misguided attempt to silence the Europe-sceptics within his party once and for all (which every Tory leader since Thatcher has unsuccessfully tried to do).

Those same sceptics are now running government policy and wont be satisfied with anything short of a full, hard separation from Europe. They've waited 30+ years for this and are hell-bent on finally achieving it, rest of the country be damned.

It's going to be a long, sad car crash and, with no effective domestic political opposition in sight, I hope Europe has the balls to make it as difficult for us as possible. The faster the country hits rock bottom the faster we can have a wholesale purge of the UK political class and start again.

[cmdkeen]

The Lib Dems had an EU referendum in their 2010 manifesto - it is part of what became the "referendum lock" in the European Union Act of 2011. The UK was going to hold a referendum at some point. Cameron thought he could win it, got poor advice during the renegotiation and from his pollster during the campaign. The country got to have its debate - both sides making some wild claims - and came to a decision which is still bearing up in the polls.

[corford]

It's bearing up in the polls because nothing visible has happened yet (apart from Sterling's slide). This is peak UK. I think 10 years from now it will be hard to find anyone that openly admits to having voted leave (much like you can't find many these days who admit they were ok with the Iraq war).

Re: Lib Dem referendum - I think you're referring to the pledge they made in 2008 when the Lisbon treaty was being ratified (saying if there was ever another massive treaty change the country should have a referendum, presumably rather that than block the other 27 states from adopting the treaty if that's what they wanted) or the 2010 manifesto point about a referendum on joining the Euro. Neither of them are mad and the first one would likely never have happened.

See:

http://www.libdemvoice.org/the-surprising-truth-about-that-l...

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/apr/15/how-much-of...