"The fact that the margin of difference was relatively narrow, and that it was dwarfed by the number of people who had not voted, would have justified that, especially in face of the fact that this was a vote with major constitutional impact, depriving all British citizens of significant rights."

THE EU REFERENDUM: (In a nutshell)

Number of local areas declared: 382/382
Remain: 16,141,241 (48.1%)
Leave: 17,410,742 (51.9%)
Total Electorate: 46,500,001
***Turnout: 72.2%****
Rejected Ballots: 25,359

With a voter turnout of 72.2% Kevin that means that 27.8% of the electorate did not cast their votes or exercise their right to vote - their choice - the ONLY votes that count in any election or referendum are the ones that are cast.

Now then Kevin:
37.42% of the total electorate voted Leave
27.2% of the total electorate did not vote at all

Would you care to revise your rather idiotic claim: it was dwarfed by the number of people who had not voted

"Best of three is the customary way to settle things like that"

Really Kevin? Where and when has that happened then?? An actual real life example would be good start, after all we have only held three nation wide referendums - in all we only got one crack at it.