Since many of this parish, apart from John ‘Pinko’ Green of course, don’t seem to check the Guardian very often, I thought I would provide this as one possibilty as to why BoJo and Pob were so flat yesterday and why they seem absent from any media today:

From the guardians comments section:

If Boris Johnson looked downbeat yesterday, that is because he realises that he has lost.

Perhaps many Brexiters do not realise it yet, but they have actually lost, and it is all down to one man: David Cameron.

With one fell swoop yesterday at 9:15 am, Cameron effectively annulled the referendum result, and simultaneously destroyed the political careers of Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and leading Brexiters who cost him so much anguish, not to mention his premiership.

How?

Throughout the campaign, Cameron had repeatedly said that a vote for leave would lead to triggering Article 50 straight away. Whether implicitly or explicitly, the image was clear: he would be giving that notice under Article 50 the morning after a vote to leave. Whether that was scaremongering or not is a bit moot now but, in the midst of the sentimental nautical references of his speech yesterday, he quietly abandoned that position and handed the responsibility over to his successor.

And as the day wore on, the enormity of that step started to sink in: the markets, Sterling, Scotland, the Irish border, the Gibraltar border, the frontier at Calais, the need to continue compliance with all EU regulations for a free market, re-issuing passports, Brits abroad, EU citizens in Britain, the mountain of legistlation to be torn up and rewritten … the list grew and grew.

The referendum result is not binding. It is advisory. Parliament is not bound to commit itself in that same direction.

The Conservative party election that Cameron triggered will now have one question looming over it: will you, if elected as party leader, trigger the notice under Article 50?

Who will want to have the responsibility of all those ramifications and consequences on his/her head and shoulders?

Boris Johnson knew this yesterday, when he emerged subdued from his home and was even more subdued at the press conference. He has been out-maneouvered and check-mated.

If he runs for leadership of the party, and then fails to follow through on triggering Article 50, then he is finished. If he does not run and effectively abandons the field, then he is finished. If he runs, wins and pulls the UK out of the EU, then it will all be over – Scotland will break away, there will be upheaval in Ireland, a recession … broken trade agreements. Then he is also finished. Boris Johnson knows all of this. When he acts like the dumb blond it is just that: an act.

The Brexit leaders now have a result that they cannot use. For them, leadership of the Tory party has become a poison chalice.

When Boris Johnson said there was no need to trigger Article 50 straight away, what he really meant to say was “never”. When Michael Gove went on and on about “informal negotiations” … why? why not the formal ones straight away? … he also meant not triggering the formal departure. They both know what a formal demarche would mean: an irreversible step that neither of them is prepared to take.

All that remains is for someone to have the guts to stand up and say that Brexit is unachievable in reality without an enormous amount of pain and destruction, that cannot be borne. And David Cameron has put the onus of making that statement on the heads of the people who led the Brexit campaign.

OK, perhaps a trifle overblown, but they may be an element of truth regarding the poisoned chalice element. It is going to be very hard work to try and meld all the disparate elements of the leave campaign as well as offer the olive branches to the remain campaigners to keep them on board. And that is just within the Tory party.

An early general election is now becoming increasingly likely, and many tories will be worried about their positions, as will even more labour mp’s in the north of course. Settling the uncertainty that ‘the markets’ hate is looking like it may take a while.

Apparently a number of people who ticked leave on their paper as a protest vote but didn’t expect them to win are now asking the electoral commision if they can change their vote! ( of course they can’t, Doh)

I would guess in a years time there will be a majority in the country who will say “well I didn’t vote for it” as the reality bites.

A couple of people who I spoke to at a new place of work yesterday who seemed so pleased leave had won were under the impression that immigration from eastern europe would cease immediately. When I pointed out it will be a few years before any changes to the system would come in they were dismayed saying “but that’s what I voted for, for all the foreigners to go” ( yes that was the actual phrase, hand on heart).

It shows that they, like so many I would imagine, had not done any research or had any understanding if the legal issues when they voted.

Even Boris and Gove seemed so subdued yesterday when Dave resigned and said effectively-“I’ll leave you to do the all s**t work”. It was almost as if he and Pob were internally saying “what have we done?”
Perhaps reality bites early at the top, but will take time to trickle down

I think it quite revealing that more than two thirds of people educated to A level and above voted remain, as did over 70%the 18-34 age group.

Nearly 17 million people Voted to stay. It is vital that whoever takes over does something to allay their disappointment and concerns….if they can

Interesting polling from Ashcroft

“A private exit poll conducted on Thursday by the businessman Lord Ashcroft showed that there was no difference between male and female voters – but very sharp differences between voters according to age, ethnicity, education and personal wealth.

Most of those working full- or part-time voted to remain, for example, while most of those who are not working wanted to leave. More than half of those on a personal pension voted to leave, a figure that rose to two-thirds of those on a state pension. Some 55% of those who own their homes outright voted to leave.”

So Project Hate won narrowly over Project Fear. Well, good luck to us all. We are going to need it

I am just glad that I have no children who would have had their long term futures betrayed by a such a small majority of their elders

But I’ll have to live with it, as will everyone and try and minimise the damage.

I think many who voted to leave yesterday will be surprised by how long it will take to see any change in immigration numbers and how quickly their pockets will be hit.

A quote from a member of that younger generation

The younger generation has lost the right to live and work in 27 other countries. We will never know the full extent of lost opportunities, friendships, marriages and experiences we will be denied. Freedom of movement was taken away by our parents, uncles and grandparents in a parting blow to a generation that was already drowning in the debts of its predecessors.”

I must admit to an element of real concern to me. Three of my four nephews are reaching the end of their university education , by a coincidence they are all going to graduate at masters level in Physics or Maths and Physiscs. All three were hoping to go into research. This is going to be considerably more difficult for them as joint funding dissapears. And before anyone says that the UK governement will pick up the tab, that in the long rum we will all be better off, I am talking about the next five years, the reality of the here and now whilst what is left of the UK extracts itself from the EU. No wonder I have had the teenage daughters of friends of mine crying this morning over their lost opportunities.

Inevitably I would guess, it would seem that the tinfoil hat brigade are suggesting that by having pencils in voting booths ‘they’ will be able to erase a leave vote and substitute a Remain vote. Either that or there are ‘millions’ of pre-printed remain ballot papers that are going to be substituted. So ‘take a Pen’, although I cant see how that helps the printed sheet ‘problem’.

Whichever, they are suggesting that if there is a Remain win it will be “fixed”

Then, to make sure they were not left out, Remainers started saying pretty much the same thing.
Twitter has a lot to answer for

:rolleyes:

Well now Pinko, that is really quite a statement.
As an example , you are much more likely to be black in a US prison as a percentage of the population, and many black people supported Obama, but it would be wrong to say because they are black and may support Obama that that is the reason they are in prison

53% of the people who voted in the 2008 election voted for Obama, if the prison population reflected this percentage then you could say that it is likely that a small majority of the prison population would have voted for him if they had a vote, but beyond that??

Oh, I have just realised. Silly me. It was intended as a joke. Ha Ha Ha

I think it may have been your use of the word “rugger”

the only people I know who still use that word usually have as an epithet in front of bu@@er

So come clean, do you read it, be honest