No mate.
The single cause for this whole debacle is the Conservative's offer of a referendum as a hedge against Eurosceptics within their own party and particularly UKIP.
It was a commitment made that they never thought they needed to fulfill as they never thought they'd win a majority in May 2015. It's entirely caused by their inability to stand up to Eurosceptics in their own party and supporter base.
It was never necessary but giving a platform to right wing malcontents has proved incredibly dangerous and ultimately decisive and will cause our country irreparable damage economically and in status and reputation.
This is spot on 100%. I feel a bit sorry for Cameron so he must be getting sympathy out there. However underneath the posh statesmanlike exterior is a spiv and a gambler. He took a gamble that massively backfired.
It's clear both Gove and Johnson don't believe in leaving. They did so to position themselves in a stronger position. Likewise Cameron tried to use the EU as a timebomb to wreck Labour. He was hoping it would be a hung Parliament, with Labour-SNP coalition and to use the EU referenda as a political hot potato to sink a weak government and probably be re elected with a big mandate. In the end he has been too cowardly to stand up to Nigel Farage until it was too late and too cowardly to stand up to his own backbench Eurosceptic MP's. However it is hard to really feel sorry for people who play with fire and find in the end they get burnt.
I contrast his behaviour with that of John Major. By no means a perfect man but with more integrity in his little finger than Cameron and the new breed have in their entire bodies. He fought tooth and nail not to reduce the Conservative message down to just being about quite a hateful, small minded and at times racist nationalism but to incorporate aspects of social mobility, peace and trade. He lacked the upbringing and connections of Cameron and probably his talent and his premiership was ravaged. He will go down as one of the biggest losers in British elections but a small footnote may say he did so with principle, integrity and decency and not being prepared to surrender the moral high ground for the spivvy elements.
I am not trying to undermine the out vote by the way. There are a million and 1 good reasons to leave. I suspect a large number of people voted on that basis. However there is both a casual racism, a campaign based on deceit, lies and half truths and a huge amount of using an issue that one doesn't believe in to improve ones election chances that has underpinned the Conservative approach to this referendum.
We now have a country that is massively divided and angry. Young v old. Urban V rural. Rich V poor. Educated V uneducated. England V Scotland. Ireland V Britain. Native population V migrants or people they deem a different race. I appreciate that is probably what Farage wanted but I don't think it's what's best for the country. The Conservatives used to try to hold to those ideals and somewhere along the way have allowed themselves to be sidetracked.
The is 100% Camerons fault. He is PM and has refused to take a big decision out of being too cowardly to stand up to his own MP's.
