we can't expect the EU to change the rules of the club because it would mean other members wanting the same - effectively destroying the club.
That single sentence is probably the most sensible thing that has been written on this entire thread regardless of whether you are a Leaver or Remainer.
Although it was paid lip service in the EU constitution, there was no real mechanism in place to accommodate any member state actually leaving. Forget about the EU for a moment - no-one here in the UK, Leaver or Remainer, genuinely thought that the result of the referendum would turn out the way it did. Farage even at one point went on TV berating the skewed, dishonest campaign against 'Leave' only to come out hours later smiling at the result, while it was left to the Remain camp to start bemoaning the skewed, dishonest campaign perpetrated by the Remainers.
The problem comes because Euroscepticism was always a factor in UK politics from the moment we joined. It simmered slowly over decades. Did no-one even notice when it came to the single currency, we as one of the top three net contributors, chose to remain outside the Eurozone? By the way I don't give a shit which side of the argument you are on, you must surely see that retaining Sterling was the best thing we ever did in this whole sorry saga of our relationship with the EU?
Euroscepticism was growing, but no-one was paying it any attention. Even when UKIP became the largest UK party in the European Parliament, because of the apathy of UK voters in European elections, who just didn't see the rising tide ... they were laughed off.
UKIP were a massive threat because they were stealing votes from both the left, right and centre of politics. They absolutely decimated the Lib-dem vote and ended up with 4 million votes in a general election and not a single MP. Oh how we laughed.
It was no laughing matter. The fact that they didn’t have a presence in Parliament meant nothing. Those 4 million weren't going to go away. They had become so disillusioned with mainstream parties and the EU and that wasn't set to change.
After the disastrous Conservative-Lib Dem (Cameron and Clegg) coalition, Cameron campaigned on a platform of 'we'll give you a referendum on EU membership' to try and attract back those right of centre voters who had defected to UKIP as well as mop up a few voters from the other parties to give him a majority. And it worked.
The problem was, he then had to deliver on the referendum. If the EU Commission had only been willing to acknowledge the reality of the situation instead of dismissing it, the chances are he (a staunch remainer) would have won that referendum but unfortunately they refused to be conciliatory so we saw what we are seeing now with May - a democratically elected UK prime minister going to Brussels and being knocked back and treated as irrelevant, dismissed, ignored.
People talk all the time about us, the UK and our faults and failings but do you not see that the EU commissioners themselves are culpable? They should have addressed the malcontent and dissatisfaction with the EU institution itself that was growing - not just in the UK but right across Europe - but they just dismissed it (as many here do too) as fascism, populism, and so on.
And we all know how that ended up. A referendum in a key member state resulted in a shock vote to Leave. If Cameron had stayed with his majority and seen through what he'd started, it might have been achieved in a more conciliatory and orderly fashion, but May was on a loser from the start. I'm not excusing her by the way. Poorly advised, disastrous election campaign and feeble leadership, although without a majority, strong leadership wouldn't have done her much good either, because her own party is split. Split like the country is.
The strongest leader, the best negotiator in the world, would not get us a good Brexit deal, because the EU does not want us to leave. It doesn't want us to prosper post Brexit, it doesn't want us to withdraw our significant financial contribution to the EU purse... because it doesn't want anyone else to leave. I don't blame them, would you them blame them? But neither can you blame those Leave voters who marked their X on the ballot paper based upon the decades of their experience?
For the EU to survive it requires the contribution of wealthy member states. It’s an expensive institution to run. Unfortunately, the introduction of a single currency has been disastrous for many countries (you cannot have the world’s 4th economy in an economic union with the world’s 40th economy and expect the latter to prosper) and we’ve seen the effect the Eurozone has had on the southern European states. The number of net contributors to the EU purse is diminishing and the UK’s contribution was significant and is going to be missed. Again, I don’t care what side of the argument you are on, if you deny that, you are denying the truth. The figures are there for all to see.
Farage is always made out to be the villain of the piece but Farage always made his intentions clear right from the getgo when he first got involved in politics. He laid out his stall and he stuck to it, never deviating and you can loathe him as much as you like but he is probably one of the most honest politicians out there is the sense you know exactly what he stands for.
I think personally that the man history will judge badly in all this is Cameron. His tactics in the post coalition government, pre-Brexit referendum were so transparent. Appease the Eurosceptics, give them their referendum, we'll win, put it to bed once and for all, and they'll all fall into line. And then when he lost he abdicates next morning, leaving others to pick up the pieces …. and here we are ...