"The lack of a referendum was poisoning British politics and so I put that right.”

[Figmentofmyimagination]

Who agrees with our esteemed ex-PM, who has resurfaced at a tourism conference in Thailand?

Yes, "Operation a success, but patient dies".

Or may be it's the onset of his mid life crisis. Who knows.

He's a moron. I hate him and want to shout at him.

feels slightly better

squishy
That sounds about right

Could agree with: The lack of a referendum was poisoning British Conservative Party internal politics and so I put that right.

Am a big fan of this graph from the Economist - the EU was a fringe issue for the vast majority of Britons until the referendum. "unbothered" we were.

www.economist.com/news/britain/21720093-until-referendum-britons-were-unbothered-european-matters-brexit-solution-search

From that article "Far from settling some burning national question, Mr Cameron’s referendum took a non-issue and turned it into one which—to borrow his words—really could poison British politics for years."

Even now look how carefully Labour and Tories tiptoe around immigration knowing what a big factor it is for many voters.

It's very debatable as to whether it's EU immigration which is the factor. Prior to the accession of the former East European countries, I don't think EU immigration mattered all that much. Since then it's been a convenient peg to hang anti-immigrant sentiment on, when underlying it all, it's really black and brown, and now especially, Muslim immigration, that people object to - and always did.

This has been trending on my fb since this morning

Excellent taytopotato. So think about that when you cast your vote, people.

Going back to Dodgy Dave's comments. It should have been - the lack of a Referendum was poisoning the Conservative Party. I would have to agree with that 100%. Now he's put that right, the result is poisoning the country.

Remember Clinton's leaked emails "In his advice to Clinton, Blumenthal was scathing in his assessment of Cameron before he became prime minister. In another email from earlier in October 2009 he wrote: “On foreign policy, Cameron is unsure, inexperienced, oblique, and largely uncommitted. So far his foreign policy is little more than projection of his domestic politics.”

He also highlighted another Guardian article reporting how a French minister accused the Conservatives of “castrating” Britain’s position within the EU by adopting an “autistic” approach to Europe."

I remember shouting at the television during the leadership debates in 2010 because he came out with some rubbish about being a strong leader in the face of China's nuclear threat then he embarrassed Vince Cable and the entire British delegation, and indeed the entire nation, by scoring a cheap bit of spin for the Daily Mail about refusing a Chinese officials request to take off his poppy, except no official who asked this has ever been found and, on the contrary, the Chinese media and Internet came out in support of having such a symbol of remembrance for those killed in the World Wars, having lost 20-30m.

Then of course he did a volte face and was knocking back pints and fawning all over the leader of the nuclear threat.

And yet still I find myself perceiving he was a good thing in the context of what has come since........

Its not just that he called the referendum, but the way the whole thing was organised: like the advisory/legally binding issue - this really should have been put into black and white before the vote. Also consideration should have been given as to what would happen if the result was v close, and more could have been done to present the facts in a neutral way.

Cameron, like many other politicians, had the luxury of allowing the EU to take the blame for all sorts of problems that were the governments fault for ages. Many of the remain politicians were in the awkward position of having to counter anti-EU myths that they had willfully spread. So arrogant to spend years kicking the EU in order to further their own political ambition, only to turn around and assume that voters would forget the years of disinformation and vote to remain.

Well, in the sense that you can stop poisoning someone once you've killed them, he is quite correct. Well done, Prime Minister...

I would get immense pleasure from slapping him.

I'd have some respect for him if he admitted he effed the whole thing up. Not a lot, but some.

I despise him. Not a single thought was given to how Brexit would impact on NI, or indeed Gibraltar.

He is a spam faced cunt

We voted to join the eu in 70s, now it's changed to such a degree the population wanted to be new vote on its new look. It was entirely proper we weren't given a vote on this.

We didn't vote to join, only in so far as we put in a Govt which wanted to join. We voted to stay in in 1975, no doubt because Harold Wilson wanted to shut up the dissidents in his party. But he was considerably smarter than Cameron, and didn't have a Referendum until he was sure of the answer. Hence a convincing majority to Stay in.

Because it's so healthy now is it?

He's an utter tool.

I wonder whether he is vindicated by the results of the local election. His principal objective - to bring the ukip voters back into the Conservative party - has clearly been accomplished, and ukip is likely to go the way of the British national party and the British union of fascists.

But I wonder how many left leaning Tories he has alienated in the process.

And he can't claim credit for the most weakened opposition in recent times.

It's a shame he had to drive the country over a cliff edge to achieve his political goal however.

What I dislike most is the cynical approach of the Labour government under Brown back in 2007. All the major parties had promised a Referendum on the Treaty of Europe. Eire, France and the Netherlands roundly rejected it. So the EU fiddled around and basically changed the wording, and - hey presto - you have the Treaty of Lisbon to vote on. We weren't even allowed a vote a) because they knew we'd reject it b) technically the Treaty of Europe had been superseded by the Treaty of Lisbon. Even though they were almost identical. So-knowing from 2007- pro Europe parties had their chance to 'educate' people about how great the EU is.

Which they didn't.

You cant blame DC, all the big parties had promised and reneged on a referendum on the EU. It was inevitable we had to have it, DC was the only one brave enough to carry through on his promise.

Yes, 'brave' DC who threw the towel in and left everyone to clear up his mess and waltzed off to write his memoirs and add to his millions on the after dinner speeches circuit. What a hero

You know when Tony Blair went delusional? Well that.

Cameron will cry on TV one day. Still defending himself.

Didn't the Commons have to vote of the implentation and wording of the Referendum? It seems ridiculous to blame it all on DC, IMO.

Whatever one thinks about Brexit, I really don't think it's a good idea to ignore what many people in the country want indefinately, purely on the grounds that they're too stupid or misguided to be allowed an opinion. The rise and decline of UKIP was an expression of what many people wanted, and achieved, like it or not. If you ignore public opinion long enough you will see the rise of far right wing parties - 11 million votes for Le Pen is a good example.

this