Originally Posted by
Gofer Blue
Funnily enough my neighbour and I were discussing this very notion earlier this week i.e. should a simple single figure majority win the referendum, such as 52% vs 48%. Such a close result guarantees half the population would be disgruntled with all the subsequent nastiness that is becoming apparent e.g. young vs old, Leave voters being “thickos” , Remain voters being intellectually superior etc. This new petition suggests a minimum of 60% needed to win – I would have suggested 66% on a minimum 75% turnout, anything less than that is unacceptable IMO for an issue as important as this one.
Cameron and the Remain camp definitely missed a trick here. He was probably so convinced that Remain would win comfortably (at least at the time when he proposed having a referendum) that it never entered his head.
P.S. I voted to leave so cannot be accused of sour grapes!