Quote Originally Posted by life on mars View Post
UKIP frenzy moment and Cameron arrogance.

Boy Cameron thought after his "no Scottish independence vote ,he'd win this one as well , and to be fair many others thought the same ,even Farage.

At least they provided a democratic vote, and allowed the release of 40 years of vengeance.

God bless democracy
The Referendum and the shambles which has followed it is entirely down to Conservative Party politics.

I have a memory of nine different Prime Ministers being selected as leaders of their party with one of them being PM on two different occasions. What part did Europe play in each of their downfalls? First up Harold Wilson, who some would say lost the 1970 election because of England's World Cup defeat by West Germany so that's vaguely European I suppose. Then there was Ted Heath, Europe played no major part in his election defeat in 1974, but he became a scourge of the anti Europe wing of the Tory party in later life. Harold Wilson returned only to step aside in 1976 - Gluey would have a field day with all of conspiracy theories as to why he did so, but the Common Market (EEC) was not involved in any of them as far as I know and it may have been that his decision was for health reasons, while his successor, James Callaghan, was brought down by domestic issues. Margaret Thatcher is widely considered to have been the first of four consecutive Conservatives PMs to lose their jobs because of the party's obsession with the EU, with John Major being the second one. Tony Blair stepped down voluntarily and is damaged goods now, but not for anything to do with Europe, Gordon Brown went primarily because of the 2008 crash, David Cameron for spectacular failures that were all EU related and now Theresa May after a Premiership which felt like it was about nothing else but Europe.

So, if you count Wilson's two spells, that's five Labour PMs and 5 Tory ones - only one of the Labour demises could be laid at the door of Europe and even that one is as a joke, while four of the Conservative ones could be with the fifth one's memory being clouded by how his standing within his pwn party fell because of his views on Europe.

Those figures tell you all you need to know about the state the UK is now in. Labour has its divisions on the EU, but its recent history is in no way dominated by Europe in the same way as the Conservative party's is - it's a toxic issue for them.