If leaving the EU is a complete and utter disaster, who will you blame?

[fakenamefornow]

Ten years down the line, the economy is struggling because of it, troubles in NI are inflamed again, I'm scared to even think what might go wrong in Gibraltar or a split with Scotland. Anyway, if it is a huge mistake, who will be at fault?

Boris. Without him supporting leave and getting behind that huge NHS lie I don't think as many would have voted to leave. He is a career politician who used to vocally support remaining in the EU. He has no morals and no principles and he truly is one of the 'privileged elites' who understands little to nothing about ordinary people's lives.

Boris is a traitor.

Boris Johnson and tabloids.

Boaty McBoatface

And yes we are truely miserable in the UK, aren't we? No appreciation of what those kids in poor countries would think of our lifestyle. We want for nothing, do we? My children and all their friends have no idea how good they have it. They are not grateful. They are quite blase about it and self entitled. Awful. so sad.

Nobody will be at fault.

we were brave enough as a country to give something different a try

Am I misunderstanding? Leave voters deserve a pat on the back for the brave act of putting a cross in a box (and of thinking positively as hard as they can), but equally don't deserve any association with any potential downsides of Leaving?

I'm not sure I want to be part of the EU. Yes, I think its(EU) probably quite corrupt. Mind you the UK has so much of its own corruption that it's amazing it has the eyes to see other peoples/countries corruption , when it cant see its own.

Yes the EU has done a lot of good for us. Do I really want to leave? Probably not. Do I want to stay either? Probably not. I am very torn. I think as an 'institution' the whole EU is starting to fall apart anyway. I kind of think we have outgrown it, but then we need it. It's better to in. But I'm not sure I like many of their basic principals.

Its like knowing that its better to be in a group, but not actually liking the group, and being too scared to leave.

Christ, what a mess!!

Mind you, nearly everything is starting to fall apart.

I really don't know what to do for the best.

Who will I blame

Macmillan for making it policy to join
Heath for taking us in
Major for agreeing to Maastricht
Brown for agreeing to Lisbon and reneging on the referendum Blair had promised
Cameron for not being able to negotiate the skin off a rice pudding

Delors for restarting the integrationist agenda
Various French presidents and German Chancellors for their love-in conspiracies against the UK

Ken Clarke for not bothering to read the Maastricht Treaty

(They're probably enough to start with)

Oh and Blair for a devolution cock-up that allowed Sturgeon to have ideas way above her station.

I agree about a sense of entitlement, but tis a long time since Classroom Maps showed the world coloured Pink...

I think that the UK is incredibly blind to its own shortcomings. The EU at least provides a reality check. The course TM is taking is terrrifying.

I agree StorminaBcup that it would be unrealistic to cherry pick which bits of the EU we have - but the path May is taking is not the only path available. I think it would be highly unlikely, for example, that we could remain a member of the single market without some freedom of movement - but she didn't have to prioritise immigration over leaving the single market. Not when the vote was as close as it was, and when leavers were falling over themselves before the referendum to insist that it wasn't all about immigration.
There should at least have been some more discussion on it, more debate, and most of all some input from people who aren't rabidly right wing Tory Brexiteers/Ukippers. I appreciate it would have been politically difficult for her to do different, but maybe she should consider putting the long term economic interests of the country above her own career.

I voted No in the last Scottish referendum, and am deeply worried that another indyref will go differently but I don't think Sturgeon is getting "ideas above her station" She's sticking to what she has always campaigned on: The prospect of another Scottish vote was widely discussed before the Brexit referendum, and dismissed as "project fear". If Scottish does vote for independance, I will hold Cameron, May, Farage etc responsible for setting that chain of events in motion, as well.

Conservatives have often banged on about "broken Britain". Well, it wasn't "broken" before but it looks like they may just succeed in ripping it apart.

Not sure. I think it is a variety of things. The political analysis is deplorable. There was a ton of bull that went unchallenged. It was rather like a series of 'alternative facts'. As there was no independent referendum commission, false or misleading stuff was not pulled.

The referendum itself was badly set up. Parliament was told it was only advisory it was put before them. Then everyone says it is the voice of the people and it is inexplicably morphed into 'binding' and anything else is a betrayal of voters. No threshold of electorate turnout or vote percentage. Coupled with the lack of an independent referendum commission to monitor lies or misrepresentation of the issues from anywhere in the campaign. And no idea what leaving the EU means in reality. Norway or Nigeria?

On another issue, Chuka Umunna was on Daily Politics yesterday. He gave the usual Labour spiel wrt respecting peoples vote. Then it transpired he is MP for a constituency where remain was 80%. If he was my MP, I'd be penning a letter asking why he wasn't representing his constituents in any parliament vote, since he was talking about people's voice and their vote.

The Brexit vote was a vote agency. Huge swathes of people feel - justifiably - that they have insufficient agency. But the EU is not the source of that. The source of their lack of agency is a combination of corporate and state interests that conspire to smother small business, individual enterprise, family life and personal creativity. The EU doesn't endeavour to do any of those things - quite the contrary - though it has let itself be corrupted by corporate lobbying.

a vote for agency

leavers were falling over themselves before the referendum to insist that it wasn't all about immigration

Except it is really. I've yet to hear a leaver argument that doesn't reference this or a thinly veiled version of it. That the other problem of the whole campaign, it turned into a popularity contest and those who 'lost' now don't get a say. I agree it's not the way forward but I can see that this is how it's going to be.

I don't understand why Nicola Sturgeon is getting ideas above her station either, Alex Salmond started the whole referendum debate and since the Scots have voted to remain in the EU I think she's doing what she has to as their leader.

Storm - the point is that it isn't all about immigration for Leavers. I think most - although not all - have immigration somewhere on their list of worries and why they voted the way they did. Not a priority for many, but on a list of concerns. Obviously I can't speak for 16 million or whatever it is, but that's my understanding.

Tee hee to anyone who thinks NS has 'ideas above their station'(pompous much? who even uses phrases like that anymore?), given that we are about to discover quite how powerful we are (or not, as the case may be).

Four out of five front page tabloid headlines in the six months leading up to the referendum vote were about immigration, so yes, it was about immigration.

Joe Stiglitz published a very good book in 2012, the Price of Inequality. Even though it's US based, the arguments apply equally here. Every chapter was an argument explaining why we are where we are.

The supreme irony is that the 'savings' from Osborne's austerity programme (never miss the opportunity presented by a good (banking) crisis), were all lost in the months after brexit thanks to currency devaluation - and will continue to be lost - multiple times - as we head in into this bizarre uncertain future.

David Cameron for being weak and egotistical. But also, ed miliband for standing against David who may well have won meaning no Tory government, and paved the way for Jeremy Corbyn. And the editors of the daily mail, sun, telegraph etc etc

Agree re David Milliband. I wish he would come back and lead a coalition of centre left parties - lib dems, centrist labour MPs, greens, snp, against TM, ukip and the dup! (Fantasy politics).

Sir David Attenborough.The boat, not the man. if they had only named it Boaty Mcboatface as per the will of the people, maybe The People would have got the whole voting for something ridiculous out of their systems.
It was Boris's brother, Jo Johnson, who put a stop to naming the boat Boatymcboatface. It would appear that the Johnson family has a lot to answer for in relation to Brexit. I hope their parents are proud of what they've inflicted on this country.

I agree that the phrase 'ideas above her station' has a bit of a class bias ring to it.
However, having seen what the SNP has done to Scottish education, the NHS, the interference with the Courts, and, oh yes, the howling deficit etc etc etc I would happily push her and her whole crew out to sea on a boat and let them sink.

She is no more a 'conviction' politician than Cameron / Boris et al.
The SNP were like \UKIP a few years ago - an embarrassing fringe group. Now look where we are.

As for Boris' brother interfering with BoatymcBoatface - really?
(that bloody family...)

APOLOGIES - I posted in haste and of course, given the horrible footage of immigrants sinking in the Med, it was hugely tasteless of me to use that phrase.

I was trying to think of the old Schoolyard thing about who would you (push out / save? ) in the Lifeboat thing, couldn't think of it well enough, and said the thing about the boat which I retract heartily.

but I loathe her, and what (in my eyes) she stands for, as much as I loathe DC and his crew.

Maybe I could banish them all to a remote island and let them fight it out
(they could be dropped off by the newly renamed BoatymcBoatFace)*

Who will you blame if /when the Euro fails?

www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38749884

"the single currency "could collapse" in the next 18 months"

He also questioned the future of the single currency.

"The one thing I would do in 2017 is short the euro," Mr Malloch said.
"I think it is a currency that is not only in demise but has a real problem and could in fact collapse in the coming year, year and a half.

"I am not the only person or economist of that point of view.

"Someone as acclaimed as Joseph Stiglitz - the famous World Bank economist - has written an entire book on this subject."

We have never taken the Euro as our currency and there didn't seem to be any plans for that to change.

Debbie you sound a bit desperate. We don't use the Euro, in case you haven't noticed, just as we're not in Schengen, we were never tied to 'ever closer union', we were king of the social chapter opt outs etc etc etc. You'll have to do better than that.

Omg but we let the European court of justice decide for us on holiday pay. At least that oh so important concern is sorted (expect that it's not, because the 'great reform bill' will entrench all existing ECJ jurisprudence into uk law ....for as long as May remains prime minister (not very long, I suspect).