"There would have been nothing wrong in holding a referendum on leaving Europe if:
a) There has been signs beforehand that there was enough discontent from the general populace on the issue to merit one

b) The referendum had been held correctly, taking the general interests of the people as a whole into consideration and providing the voters with the information they needed

c) That those responsible had made and presented carefully drawn out plans as to what would replace Europe and the consequences of doing so..."

Well you could have added to those the need to set the bar very high for leaving (an irrevocable decision). I suggested at least a two-thirds majority of a turnout not less than 75%. A remain vote is much easier to overturn at some future date. The referendum was thus fatally skewed. But, even had all these caveats been in place, the referendum (called by a man who was thereby trying to stave off the threats from UKIP and his own backbenchers, lest we forget) would still not have been justified. The extremely complicated consequences of leaving which we now see all too clearly were either seriously downplayed or simply not put before the people in the campaign. We elect parliament to look into all the ramifications of policy changes before they are decided on. That's the full-time job of MPs who have not only their own experience but also the input of hundreds of advisers and other civil servants. Just to pre-empt the expected brainless input of those who say that that's an insult to the intelligence of the populace, I beg you just to watch the dreary vox pops that are on just about every BBC news bulletin these days. The level of public political ignorance routinely on display is depressing in the extreme and is a brilliant argument against giving crucial decisions about the future of this country back to the people in referendums. Ignorance leaves you vulnerable to lies and propaganda. That was cynically exploited ceaselessly by both sides in the referendum campaign. And Jim's right about the fact that there was little appetite for a squabble in the country over Europe. We were bumping along just fine. Successive Tory leaders all the way back to Thatcher have all bitten the dust via making A Big Thing about Europe instead of focusing on domestic issues. Just for once I'd love to see unlearned history repeating itself.