I ll agree on that Indy Dugdale is a disaster. Davidson seems like a decent leader although I wouldn't trust her in the slightest. She is a classic Tory in that regard.

Just out of interest how did eligible forum members vote ?

Just really interested in the overall vote, but if you want to publicly declare go for it  

-- Edited by indiana on Thursday 30th of June 2016 05:30:54 PM

OUT it is!.  I for one am pleased, but admit there'll be some weeks of turmoil. Glad that the turnout was way more than 50% too.

Ben Riley-Smith @benrileysmith 11h11 hours ago

HOW AGES VOTED
(YouGov poll)
18-24: 75% Remain
25-49: 56% Remain
50-64: 44% Remain
65+: 39% Remain

Marine Le Pen is thrilled. So that's good too.

And, as steven says,

Steven @GBtennis 3h3 hours ago

If you've made Farage, le Pen, Putin & Trump very happy (and more smug than ever), don't you have to wonder what on earth you've just done?

 

But that's just my view......

It is indeed a very sad day, but those that voted remain need to come to terms with it and try to make the best of a bad situation (though the temptation to emigrate to Canada is overwhelming for me at the moment).

The result is not a surprise when you consider the following:

1. There is no understanding amongst the electorate as to what the EU is and what it does and does not do. The role of the EU is not taught within our schools, and I wonder how many who voted yesterday could name our 27 soon to be former colleague states?

2. The media in this country loves to focus on the negative. Over the last decades we hear about how bureaucratic it is in Brussels (understandable to a degree given you are trying to balance the views of 28 countries), we get articles about all of the negative niggling small rules or regulations (rather than the ones that are beneficial - and let's face it UK manufacturers, those that are still in business anyway, will have to conform to EU regulations anyway as it surely won't be economically viable to do otherwise we will just have no say in what the regulations are), and stories of EU migrants that have abused our welfare system. We do not hear that much about the EU investment in places like Newcastle and Cornwall. We do not hear stories like the one my colleague told me yesterday of the amazing Italian midwives who supported their sister deliver her first child in challenging circumstances, or the EU migrants who have set up businesses that employ UK workers, or the fact that we need migrants to fill roles where we have a shortage of skilled workers in this country. This is swept under the rug as it's not "click bait" or headline grabbing.

3. We have (for a few months still at least) a conceited and arrogant PM who thought he could bluster his way through the campaign. Who failed to see that the electorate was not going to bend to him on this matter. That choosing to hold a referendum at a time when UKIP was on the march in the general and local elections was foolish. That choosing to hold a referendum at a time when your post election swaggering has alienated most MPs within your own party was foolish. That choosing to hold a referendum when the Syrian refugee mixed with migrants situation on the continent had not been resolved was foolish. That choosing to hold a referendum when people are afraid of other cultures due to recent events in Paris, Brussels, Orlando, Tunisa, Istanbul, Sharm el Sheikh, Iraq and Syria was foolish. That choosing to hold a referendum at a time when the UK and EU economies have not recovered from the economic crisis was foolish. The timing of the referendum could see no other outcome.

4. The Remain campaign (like the Leave campaign, No Scottish referendum campaign and the Conservative 2015 General Election campaign) relied too heavily on trying to scare the public with economics, even if the economic reasons were valid from valid experts (and the market uncertainty of today and the coming months will likely lead to more cuts and tougher financial conditions for those already struggling to make ends meet), they never once truly highlighted the positives of the EU or bring into focus those things that people don't realise are attributable to the EU.

Great Britain as a whole has never really understood the EU it seems. We have not really tried to embrace it as a nation, or been willing to recognise the benefits. It's a toxic issue for Conservatives for a reason. Despite my fondest wishes for us to remain within the EU, it was not hard to see this outcome coming.

Everyone, and I mean everyone, in the Remain campaign should resign, retire, and hang their heads in shame. They had a basically unloseable position, and through arrogance, disdain, disinterest and bullying they managed to drive the country into the arms of Nigel-******-Farridge.

I don't really care one way or the other (I really can't see how it affects the average Joe in the street), but if what the Innies have been saying is true, then I hold them - each and every one of them, but with Osborne at the head of the queue - personally responsible.

What staggering incompetence from folk that believe themselves to be capable of running a country. They couldn't run a bath.

Now there is going to be a real battle to stop the remnants of the political establishment turning this country into a fascist idiocracy.