If leaving is such a certain disaster then why did they give us a vote?

[3amEternal]

Seems bizarre to me. Surely if we go out and the sky falls down the government will be at fault for offering the option in the first place?

I think Cameron thought it would be an easy win. Unfortunately his gamble may not pay off........

Btw I hope it does!

I suspect he mistakenly thought nobody would be stupid enough to vote for it, and he could shut he back-benchers up who were banging on about an EU referendum and put the issue to bed for another generation.

If he pulls it off then it might just be one of his greatest achievements........fingers crossed......

I agree - maybe it won't be such a disaster if we leave after all!

George is getting desperate. A leave vote will certainly scupper his leadership chances.

God Cameron must be pissed off.

Bit naive of them then. Following years of right wing papers banging on about immigration and EU interference one would expect a proportion of the population (especially the ones that vote conservative) to want out...

100% agree
I dont think they thought they would get an outright majority so the nasty lib dems would have 'stopped them'
Massive massive fuckup

Because UKIP were not only taking votes off the Conservatives but also taking some of their MPs, and they thought offering a referendum would stop this. I don' think they seriously imagined that the leave campaign would have a chance of winning.

Yes but the more right-wing half of the party DO want out. Cameron was relying on Labour support too, but Corbyn is being so pathetic about it all that Labour voters don't know what to do and have got sucked into all the "Rule Britannia" propaganda. Boris is milking it big time, and all those poor unsuspecting "hard working families" of Britain are trotting along like good little lambs to the slaughter.......Boris et al don't give a stuff about them, and Corbyn who SHOULD is just a big girl's blouse all tied up in knots so doing sweet FA.

He never intended give us a referendum. It was part of the Tory election manifesto to try and win back those voters lost to UKIP. He (like everyone else) never thought the Tories would get a majority. He (like everyone else) thought there would another Tory-Lib Dem coalition. A referendum would have been a Lib-Dem red line they would not cross in agreeing to a coalition and Cameron would have been able to break his referendum promise by "blaming" the Lib Dems for not wanting it (although he never wanted it either).

Yep Cameron was so desperate to win he gambled with our economy.

I'm very worried that we'll leave.

OP it's a good question and fair point. DC promised a referendum to slap UKIP down, reunite the right wingers and thus win the election.

I don't believe for one minute that in floating such a wide reaching and complex socioeconomic question to the general public he considered a brexit would ever genuinely be on the cards.

A silly gamble, poorly managed by an arrogant career politician, rammed home by a dissatisfied nation who've been lied to that "it's not our fault, it's the EU" by so many successive democratically elected UK governments that unfortunately they actually believe it .

Talk about an own goal. For David Cameron and UK democracy.

You'd think he'd learnt his lesson from the Scottish Referendum, which was very nearly a disaster.

He's an arrogant prick and his gamble could well ruin so many lives. Nice one, Dave.

I don't think for a minute there will be an out vote.

When push comes to shove people are conservative and choose to keep the status quo.

But yes, it is working out a bit closer than anyone thought!

If we leave, then I will love him forever.

I can't think of a single positive media story on the EU since...well...ever. So the electorate have had years of 'blame the EU' propaganda and suddenly Dave et al expect them to accept overnight that its a good thing??

aye aye. If I recall correctly, he only woke up to that about 10 days prior to the referendum.

If UK leaves EU and then Scotland leaves UK via Indyref2 and sneaks back into EU, does anyone know if people of Scottish descent will get EU passports like Irish descendants do?

That would work.

I think DC promised it never thinking in a million years that the Conservatives would win an outright majority, complete gamble that has not paid off

If UK leaves EU and then Scotland leaves UK via Indyref2 and sneaks back into EU

None of this will happen, so don't worry.

Well, I'm nervous the first might, but the second and third won't.

Globetrotter, why will Scotland leave the UK, do you think they would be better off??

Good question, OP. I also think he's gambled, and it is close to massively back firing on him.

The one thing that all if my friends, family, and just about everyone I have spoken to agrees, is that it has united the entire country against politicians.

Lizzy, I think everyone is better off staying together. I'm very much pro remain.

But in the event of UK leaving the EU, just about every Scottish person I know would, if (and only if) forced to choose, prefer EU membership to UK membership.Hence the curious question.this is what I'm thinking about:

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/eu-referendum-debate-nicola-sturgeon-refuses-to-rule-out-second-scottish-independence-referendum-a7073686.html

Thanks for your reassurance, aye

England, Scotland and the EU will be worse off if we leave. Scotland has more people who believe in fairness and the welfare state so the economic cuts are more likely to be distributed more fairly than in England. Also Scotland does not believe that everythin is best run through private companies so they are more likely to be more effective.

They have a smaller talent pool than England as they have a smaller population. However there are fewer class barriers so they may be able to access as good amount of talent as England. (If England largely draws its goverment from 7% who attend private schools)

What makes me laugh is DC's attempt to distance himself from the fact that it's his party's decision to hold the bloody referendum. I think that's a piece of spin he isn't going to be able to play out.