I’ve given your comments a little thought, flobabdob. I wonder if you have.
“And, as I say, it certainly appears that many people didn't know all the details of what leaving means.”
Apart from being somewhat insulting, why is that any more true today than it was on Thursday? Would you be suggesting that if the vote had been to remain?
“And, although it was all carried out democratically, there is something uncomfortable about people aged 60+ pushing through a decision that young people are obviously against. “
How do you know the vote was carried by those aged 60+? No figures on the age profile of voters is recorded or is available (in the actual referendum, I mean, not opinion polls which once again have proved spectacularly unreliable throughout). And why are the votes of over 60s of any less value than those younger? Bear in mind that older people have had to endure the car crash that is currently the EU which has been getting progressively worse as time goes on for far longer than younger people. They have lived with the results of the EU’s incompetence and intransigence. When younger people get older and no longer know everything they, too, may take a different view but for now they are stuck with a majority decision they may not like. Life's a bit tough like that sometimes.
It is true that older people will live with the results of this (and any other) vote for less time than younger people. What are you suggesting, a “sliding scale” of the value of a person’s vote, perhaps something like this:
2.0 for those 18-30
1.5 for the 31-40 year olds
1.0 for 41-50
0.5 for 51-60
0.0 for the over 60s (about whom you feel so uncomfortable)
What about younger people with terminal illnesses? No vote for them since they won’t live to see the consequences? A person of 60 could have 40 more years to live. The damage inflicted by the EU in the last 40 years is but nothing to what we will see if it goes on in the same direction for the next 40 and older people have every right to an equal say.
“Who will have to live with the outcome?”
Everybody in the country.
The idea of democracy is that the majority holds sway. We don’t have a second crack at a vote when nothing has changed just because some people dislike the outcome. That’s what the EU does and that’s one of the very reasons why we need to be out. The only thing that has changed since Thursday is that the result has been announced.
This question was not one about who will be a fiver a week better or worse off; it was not one about whether a trip to Benidorm will cost an extra £20; it was not even one about how many migrants come here. It was a fundamental question about who governs the UK because without a satisfactory answer to that, all the other questions need not be asked because the neither the UK electorate nor our government will have any say in them.
None of the questions like the one you raised would have been asked if it had been 52% (or even 50.1%) to remain. I doubt many Brexiteers (certainly not me) would have been clamouring with all sorts of reasons why a second vote should be held. Mr Cameron would have been on the steps of No 10 announcing proudly that the people have spoken and we now need to press on. This is no different. The people have spoken but some people, including many in government, do not like what they have said. Well that’s tough; the question was straightforward; the issues were clear; the answer has been provided and the government needs to crack on and act on the wishes of the people.