Whether before or after election, government pledges are equally disposable. They keep them because it's convenient, break them if that's convenient. No different from the way most people behave when it comes to promises or pledges, even when those were sincerely meant at the time. Consider the divorce statistics...

But the actual point isn't whether the referendum outcome will be treated as binding. It's whether that should be taken as meaning anything more than was actually contained in that referendum question.