Even if he gets booted as party leader and out of No. 10, in theory we elect a party, not a prime minister so there's no requirement to have a general election, since the referendum isn't a parliamentary vote. With a small majority already and ruling parties traditionally suffering a fall in popularity midterm, there's no way in hell the Tory party are going to volunteer to potentially be kicked out of power. They'll keep their hands on the levers of power until someone pries them off, one by one.

Purely in strategic political terms, The best bet might be if the remain wins and the opposition (all of them) can somehow trigger a vote of no confidence in the government which a few disgrunted brexit Tory MPs decided to side with out of spite. It is tradition to hold a general election if a government loses a vote of no confidence.

The problem will be is if the Pro and Anti Europe MPs are fighting all the time so no new legislation / budgets gets past then they might have to call one - With Osborne saying he will have to pass an emergency budget (if its a vote to leave) and a load on Tory MP's saying they will vote against it then that will become a vote of no confidence and so trigger a new election

when we vote out, please note i stated when not if, and parliament fail or refuse to abide by the referendum decision then there would be constitutional crisis which would more then likely lead to a GE. i am hoping that happens because parliament needs a good clean out (aka Scotland after their referendum) ...

If you cast you mind back to the Electoral Reform referendum we had a few years ago, written into the act, there was a requirement for the government to follow up on it and act accordingly. With the EU referendum, there is no such requirement written into the Act.


(my emphasis)
http://blogs.ft.com/david-allen-green/2 ... or-brexit/

A referendum is always just that - a referral. The government is asking us a question. The “Leave” box does not automatically mean that Article 50 will be invoked on the 24th June. Maybe if it did, people would be taking this a little more seriously.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-e ... m-36537180

Whichever side of this particular fence you are on, the whole campaign has been idiotic. Armando Iannucci could not have scripted this better. There has been little by way of verifiable facts, no real sensible discourse on any subjects, and it’s focussed on two - economics (and the volume of people who have suddenly become qualified economists over the last couple of weeks is astounding - why they are not working as highly paid economists instead of driving taxis, selling cabbages on the market, or being unemployed is beyond me*), and immigration - which is the piss-easy rallying call for the frightened. People are being deliberately told not to think - it’s all been done for them. The handy catch phrases are recited, the untruth and falsehoods retold. We are even told that we should not be really listening to experts (probably because they say things to the contrary of the argument being made).

https://next.ft.com/content/3be49734-29 ... c22d5d108c

At times like this, when you are making a decision that will affect the country for a very, very long time to come, you NEED experts to advise you. Going with your gut and a handful of half-truths is truly a bad idea.

Also, I love this quote from the same article - a comment made to a TV audience member to Gove:



*HInt: sarcasm

@paulzolo. i agree the campaign from both sides have and i mean both sides have been idiotic but the biggest item on the agenda is immigration which is the main contender in the arena still.

but if parliament go against the referendum decision then parliament places itself between a rock and a hard place which i believe will lead to a GE brought on all by themselves, a self inflicted wound which at the ballot box, so soon after the referendum, will lead to a blood bath at any election as all main parties will be judged on that decision or lack of ...

If this is the result of the referendum campaign, then we should stop now, cancel the poll, and fcuk what the Britain First/UKIP and other Brexiters think.

Campaigning has apparently been suspended but the vote is still scheduled to go ahead as planned. Many people have already voted by post.

my sympathy to Mrs Cox MP family over their lose.

i don't see this as a reason to cancel the referendum and will still be voting 'out' of this mess ...

Switzerland officially withdraws EU membership application.


http://www.politico.eu/article/switzerl ... in-the-eu/

Remember - regardless of the referendum result, Cameron won”t be serving a full term as PM anyway. He said this in the general election campaign. At some point, the Tory party will be selecting a new leader this term.

Also remember that the UK electorate does not directly elect a PM - we select a party to govern, and that party’s leader is invited by the Queen to form a government. We do not hold presidential style elections.

Meanwhile, our own (imported) little “I’m not a racist but” enabler Nigel Farage and his jolly bunch of tweedshirts have launched a particularly vile poster.


Nigel Farage's anti-migrant poster reported to police

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/201 ... f-migrants


And UKIP start to invoke Godwin}s Law. Imagine that.

Also: Steve Bell on Nigel Farage's anti-immigration campaign – cartoon
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfre ... gn-cartoon

i remember the Tory posters with a big queue 'labour isn't working'.
but unlimited uncontrolled immigration especially 'illegal' immigration isn't working for the UK.

there is only one way and one way only to stop that, leave the EU close our borders and then make our laws so draconian for immigration by controlling it via application only, an application which would be open to the whole world not just unlimited uncontrolled from the EU.
but more importantly make the laws the most severe in the world for removal of the above. i am looking forward to that day which is not far away ...

edit.
those that are removed have a right to 'family life' under the HRA.
therefore the families of those removed should be removed with them.

it does not state anywhere in the HRA where they have to live for this right to 'family life' just the right too ...

as a side note.
the referendum for electoral voting change was lost. we still run first passed the post.
which i believe would work against the main parties at the next GM. happy days ...

The whole immigration issue is horrible. I’m not denying a problem, but the language, insinuations and double entendres about it are so base and ugly that I am driven away from it rather than trying to think rationally about. it.

We all know that recent figures have shown that non-EU immigration is higher than EU immigration. EU net migration: 184,000, Non EU net migration: 188,000 (source, right-wing friendly Migration Watch: http://www.migrationwatchuk.org/statist ... statistics). So, in 2015, if we had shut the door to EU migration, we would still have 188,000 people turning up and getting in. You could argue that leaving the EU, we’d only have 188,000 getting in last year. In fact, if we stayed in the EU and closed the door to non-EU migrants, we’d only have to accept 184,000 people - a smaller number, and those people would be more likely to be a UKIP/Britain First friendly white and Christian. You are also aware that we are not in the Shengen zone, so people can’t just rock from the EU and get in unchecked. If you’ve ever travelled to Europe, you’ll be aware of the “welcome home, citizen” queues and suspicious looks at your passport as you enter the country. Bloody marvellous - we treat out own citizens with contempt for travelling abroad. I can only imagine what the real foreigners feel as they enter our supposed land of freedom and democracy.

Farage is actually playing a very clever game - only a few times has the mask slipped and his true intentions have been shown. He’s affable, comes over as the kind of person who’d present an entertaining programme on BBC as he tours village pubs. This is all part of the persona, so when he says things like “we want our country back” or “get back control” it seems slightly less threatening. However, this image, and behaviour, the word and phases, are crafted to trigger what is known as the “dog whistle” response. To normal people, these phrases sounds like slightly off-colour rhetoric, but to others it’s got a deeper resonance. You can read more about this phenomena here. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog-whistle_politics

The whole immigration issue is one I will not engage with when this is the driving force. It’s not rational, it preys on fears and prejudices, and causes some of the most abhorrent political displays I have seen for a very long time. It does not ask people to think about this issues - those which include an ageing indigenous population, the need for skilled (and even low-skilled) workers to plug gaps in various industries and services - both private and public, taxes paid, local (and national) economy benefitting from earnings being re-circulated.

No - it firmly points a finger at Johnny Foreigner and tells you that it’s all their fault, and they should not be here. and that is what Farage, Johnson, Gove, and others do when they use phrases like “we want our country back”, or “get back control”.

This is a vile campaign that has been the most base, horrible, nasty (I’m running out of adjectives here) and idiotic that I have ever seen. If the country vote Brexit, then I truly hope that everything that is predicted to go wrong does. We’ll deserve it for allowing ourselves to be deluded by a collection of some of the most abhorrent political characters we have ever known.

that's why a application controlled type system would work. plus backed up with strong borders and the most severe deportation laws in the world. unlimited uncontrolled immigration will not as it would only get worse ...