It's worth me pointing out that while I was arguing against ong's position on this a few months ago, my position is slightly leaning in his favor these days.

I still believe the public vote was a stunt. I still believe the politicians expected the result of the vote would be remain, as when it was not remain, there was no plan to make that happen.
Further down the road, we see that not only was there no plan at the time, there was no political will to make it happen, as it's been years and saying any progress has been made requires some explaining.

The politicians tried to pull a stunt, and it backfired. In so doing, they gave will to the people. If they do not allow that will to express itself, then ong's right, it's a miscarriage of democracy.


For better or worse, it is every people's right to govern itself, and once the people speak, it is incumbent on their politicians to make that happen...
IMO. Based on what I understand about the causes of revolutions, which is not my expertise.

There's at least a couple of historical precedents where a leader offered a freedom as a lie, and that leader was later met with violence when the freedom was withheld. I'm not making any direct comparisons between Brexit and truly corrupt strongmen. I'm noting the human danger inherent in telling a large group of people that you have the ability to remove a negative, and you choose not to do so. Once the people know the negative can be removed, they are prone to taking it for themselves.

The metaphor is ominous, IMO. Not that we should jump at shadows. Just be aware of the echos of past missteps.