To wish people would STOP saying 52% of people voted for Brexit......

[BertrandRussell]

No they didn't.

38ish% did.

That's 38%. This seismic change has been triggered by 38% of the population.

[DianaRoss]

Maths was never my strong point but even I can calculate 52% of 72% of the electorate does not = 52% of the Great British people.

Of course, but results are always decided on votes cast. I know 2 people who did not vote because they were undecided. What are you going to do ...... go to their homes and drag them to the voting stations?

[BertrandRussell]

No. It's not "nit picky" to think that the process is going to be extraordinarily grim, and too many people are glossing straight ove that to the sunny future with Captain Mainwaring and co patrolling the white cliffs of Dover "protecting our borders"

[redshoeblueshoe]

I voted, neither of my DC did. One has recently moved and was not registered, the other was unexpectedly unable to get to the polling station.
I do not agree with compulsory voting, if it was compulsory I would destroy my ballot paper.
In Manchester we had a referendum regarding having a directly elected mayor. We voted against it. This result has been totally ignored.

[Rosie0987]

Sign the petition

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/131215/signatures/new

Take back control and stay in the EU for the sake of your Kids

Rosie

[DianaRoss]

*There is loads of hate going around for older generations and yet I know a few who did not vote as they felt it was not their decision to make. Now getting the blame for not voting.&

I agree. Two women I know (both early 70s) were Undecideds and did not vote.

I know that on Thursday there was an unusually large number of first-time voters (18 and 20s) who voted to Remain. I understand, because they have not known anything different and to them it felt dangerous and shaky to vote Leave. A nd also of course they do not yet understand that taxes are finite and they have to stretch to pay for many services, including the generous package given to EU people who are prioritised before UK born people. Remember Hounslow housing dept and that Romanian family of 7?

[GoudyStout]

No, it's not picky to point out the difference between 52% of Britain voted to leave and 52% of the electorate voted to leave and 52% of those who voted voted to leave. Because they are all different things, and only one is a majority.

[DianaRoss]

Perhaps for the future, we should change voting rules for general and local elections to state that not less than 60% will be recognised as a result. But that still does not take account of those will decline to vote.

[GoudyStout]

DianaRoss that's a very contemptuous view of the engagement of young people in the political process. I saw the 16 and 17 year olds get involved in the Scottish Indyref and they were passionate, thoughtful and most of all informed.

But hey ho, we can ignore the will of the 75% of the 18 to 24 yr olds that voted to Remain because they were fearties. Never mind that they will be the ones who will have to live with fallout of the Leave vote for the longest.

[BertrandRussell]

"Remember Hounslow housing dept and the Romanian family of 7?"

No. Tell me about it.

[AdrenalineFudge]

I think it is referring to the Channel 4 documentary How to get a Council House. Basically a Romanian man and his brood presented at Hounslow housing dept and were given a house. That's a very brief overview but there are certain people that would like you to believe that he was parachuted in and prioritised before UK citizens.

[TheGoodEnoughWife]

Give it a rest Rosie. There was a vote. You lost. Get over it.

[InShockReally]

There are no winners here GoodWife. None of us should just "get over it" and especially on day 2.

[DianaRoss]

Now for the hard work. The exit process, import/export deals, new legislation in respect of immigration and benefits support etc are all dependent on how capable and honest the politicians will be. They have to stick to their guns and always remember why the vote was Leave.

If they cannot or will not reverse the Blair govt's deliberate policy to flood this country with divisive multiculturalism, and successive govts inability to slow down further immigration and to give housing priority to EU people, then the hard work will have been for nothing. There will be loads of vociferous and public opposition from the SJWs and the RL, but we need to get this country back on track.

I should add, my parents were foreigners. What I am speaking of is NUMBERS, so huge that there is no will to integrate.

[TheGoodEnoughWife]

Okay, take a bit longer then but to keep going on about another vote or a veto is pathetic.

[Headofthehive55]

Did the original vote to join the European common market need a majority vote or did we go into it with less than 50% of the electorate, / population?

[SueTrinder]

The Conservatives picked up on that before the last general election and promised a referendum as part of their manifesto

Bullshit. Cameron had to include it to get the Eurosceptics in his own party to back the party line during the election.

The trouble with having a minimum vote is that it also causes real problems, in Scotland in 79 there was a lot of unhappiness about the fact that the majority of people who voted voted for devolution but because the turnout wasn't high enough they didn't get the 40% of the electorate required for devolution to go ahead.

On the other hand the independence campaign has not gone away because the Scotland voted IN two years ago and things are gearing up for another referendum again, especially after this result. It can be very difficult when things are close.

I don't know, I think when there is a referendum about such a massive change (like Scottish independence or being in the EU) then my personal view is that the bar needs to be higher for the 'change' option rather than the 'stay' option because there's no going back on that decision. It's not like a general election where we can all change our minds in 5 years time.

Incidentally I looked up the figures for the 75 referendum. Then 64.62% of the electorate voted and of those people 67.23% voted in so that was 43.4% of the total electorate who voted to join. That feels like a much greater mandate that we currently have.

[DianaRoss]

Adrenaline As the programme stated - the man had travelled to England beforehand by himself to take a look. On that visit he had picked up application forms for schools. He went back to Romania, packed up his house and with his wife & 5 children travelled to England. He had no job offer, no place to sleep, knew nobody. The first night a West Indian pastor from a local church put the family up and made them breakfast the next day. He drove them to Hounslow Council.

The first housing officer they saw was aghast at what he had done. She could not believe that he had just upped and left. However, a second interview was given (this time with an interpreter) and the second housing officer also said the same ..... we cannot help you. UNTIL the man produced a piece of paper showing that on the day of arrival he had gone to the nearest job centre and registered for work.

After 3 hrs of debating, a senior housing officer ruled that they would be "helped". Help was in the form of a 4 bed house in Birmingham at £750 per month. It was explained that a similar property around Hounslow would cost £2,000 per month. They were given 7 free train tickets to Birmingham, and the next thing we see is them in their newly-decorated, clean terrace house in Birmingham. Five weeks later we are shown that neither he nor wife have been able to find a job.

So, Yes, he did parachute himself in. He has a house back home and had made himself deliberately homeless. This is the priority that is given to EU nationals. Not much talked about, but that is the directive to councils. ALL OF THIS HAPPENED WITHIN THE SPACE OF 4 DAYS during which they were put up in a B&B.

[BertrandRussell]

"Headofthehive55, there was no original vote, paedophile Ted Heath took us in without a vote."
Stylish post!

[DailyMailEthicalFail]

A clear MAJORITY of people who chose to vote, chose BREXIT.
By the rules in place when we voted.
It's done now and no undoing so not much point debating it after the fact.

(it's interesting that the % difference was around what people were forecasting, but it went 'the other way' to the way the establishment expected. I'll bet if it was Bremain then there would be less discussion about the rules or the majority.)

It was like this after the 1st Scottish IndyRef. Months of arguing about results.
At least this Referendum result will be respected.
Scotland will have called a 2nd IndyRef by the end of this year, despite a close but clear vote less than 2 years ago that we were promised would be a 'once in a generation vote'.

[Pendu]

Oh how stupid . It would be proportional anyway - this implies all non voters were remainers! Every vote/election is the same. Turnout was high and it was fair. This is so stupid now - also people saying over 60% should be leave for us to leave ... But yet that means we could remain on 59.9% vs 40.1% - nearly a 20% difference.

The population has spoken , I've not heard of anyone who was tied up and denied a vote so people need to stop clutching at straws.

[Nibledbyducks]

I don't like the argument that those who don't vote don't get a say, they said something, they said I abstain. Until our balot papers have a third option or reopen nominations box then not voting needs to be considered a voice.

[InShockReally]

Actually according to posters on here, some people turned up and couldn't vote. Some got stuck commuting. One of my friends works huge shifts and only narrowly got there. Some people aren't eligible to vote but are still affected by the decision.

For something this huge, there should have been a mandate for a significant majority. I'm still stunned that there wasn't.