Why are the elite having problems accepting the results of the June 2016 referendum?

This is the question the redoubtable  Gisela Stuart posed.If you go on Google.you will find the following list of our referendum results since 1973 as listed  by the electoral commission.

https://www.parliament.uk/get-involved/elections/referendums-held-in-the-uk/

I quote below from this report

Previous referendums in the UK

• 8 March 1973: Northern Ireland  – Northern Ireland sovereignty referendum on whether Northern Ireland should remain part of the United Kingdom or join the Republic of Ireland (yes to remaining part of the UK)
• 5 June 1975: UK – Membership of the European Community referendum on whether the UK should stay in the European Community (yes)
• 1 March 1979: Scotland – Scottish devolution referendum on whether there should be a Scottish Assembly (40 per cent of the electorate had to vote yes in the referendum, although a small majority voted yes this was short of the 40 per cent threshold required to enact devolution)
• 1 March 1979: Wales – Welsh devolution referendum on whether there should be a Welsh Assembly (no)
• 11 September 1997: Scotland – Scottish devolution referendums on whether there should be a Scottish Parliament and whether the Scottish Parliament should have tax varying powers (both referendums received a yes vote)
• 18 September 1997: Wales – Welsh devolution referendum on whether there should be a National Assembly for Wales (yes)
• 7 May 1998: London – Greater London Authority referendum on whether there should be a Mayor of London and Greater London Authority (yes)
• 22 May 1998: Northern Ireland – Northern Ireland Belfast Agreement referendum on the Good Friday Agreement (yes)
• 3 March 2011: Wales – Welsh devolution referendum on whether the National Assembly for Wales should gain the power to legislate on a wider range of matters (yes)
• 5 May 2011: UK – referendum on whether to change the voting system for electing MPs to the House of Commons from first past the post to the alternative vote (no, first past the post will continue to be used to elect MPs to the House of Commons)
• 18 September 2014: Scotland – referendum on whether Scotland should become an independent country (no, the electorate voted 55 per cent to 45 per cent in favour of Scotland remaining within the UK.

The 1975 one came shortly after Parliament had voted us in and was anyway well and truely fixed by Harold Wilson so we stayed in . Cameron never had Wilson’s brains and  his pathetic attempts to fix the 2016 referendum failed abysmally followed by his ignominious retreat.. What would his fellow Old  Etonian Wellington have made of his cack handed Bullingdon club effort?

 More interesting  and still relevant to us today is how Heath got the second reading of the ECA
taking us into the Common Market.

On 17 February 1972, the House of Commons voted narrowly by 309-301 in favour of the Bill at its second reading, after three days of intense debate.

Now that was a narrow result! but there were no calls then for a peoples vote. Heath had repeatedly dismissed such referendum calls in the run up to 17th Feb vote..


Michael Crick tweeted on 25th Oct


If the Government only gets Withdrawal Deal through Commons with some Labour votes and abstentions, there’s a nice twist. Heath Govt only got 2nd reading vote on Oct 1971 of act to join EEC with 69 Lab votes & 29 Lab abstentions

May is obviously trying to repeat Heath”s trick. Heath was helped by crypto metropolitan elite LibDems Jenkins and Williams  while May now has Chuka and his chums also of the London elite. 

So why no previous referendum problems? Other than the London mayor vote which clearly benefited the London elite’s bank balances the other votes were in  places the elite had no financial interest in, Wales, NI and Scotland



The 1972 Hansard division list is below

755

757