Petition for SECOND EU referendum sees so many signatures it CRASHES website

[Denzil_DC]

23. It. Was. Not. An. Election.

"Re-dos" on referendums aren't rare.

In fact, they can serve to clarify views and give people a better basis on which to decide how to vote by continuing the debate with a dose of reality added to the mix.

In the aftermath of the vote, there are a LOT of people who are only now trying to figure out what the plurality have voted for (Google's record of searches once the results are in bears this out, for example), and quite a number who are expressing buyers' remorse because they voted Leave as a protest vote not directly related to EU membership, but out of general disaffection or a desire to stick it to Cameron and the establishment, assuming that it was safe to do so because Remain would win anyway.

Some seem to have treated it like a reality TV show vote, and are having "Oh shit" moments now the results are in.

It looks like that even applies to leading Leave light Boris Johnson, who was visibly shaken and unprepared in his speech on the morning after. He and the Leave leadership have no plans for how they're going to approach negotiations, nor seemingly the massive task that lies ahead of unravelling the many ways the EU and UK economy intermesh and how they're going to compensate for the economic benefits EU membership has brought to more disadvantaged areas of the UK when the UK government has been unable or willing to offer such support in the past.

Some of this is a failing of the media, which only after the result are asking hard questions and pressing Leave on what the hell they intend to do. Only now are the rash statements and promises and downright lies on the Leave side - extra funding for the NHS, reduced immigration, etc. - being seriously challenged. Nigel Farage, for instance, is able to shrug it off, because he doesn't give a shit about being seen as a liar or simply abandoning commitments made by other parts of the conveniently fragmented Leave campaign.

On such a major constitutional issue, allowing a bare majority (~4% in this case) to decide the result is a recipe for serious lasting divisions. The bar should have been set at 66%. There's precedent for this in internal devolution referendums in the UK in the past.

I'd feel the same unease if the vote had gone the other way. Farage said on the eve of poll that if it ended up being 52-48% Remain, he wouldn't consider the matter settled. The Remain side are unlikely to have the hutzpah to pursue that line.

So no, it's not an outlandish nor unreasonable idea to re-run the referendum. It's just highly unlikely to happen.