Only around 30% voted to leave the EU:

[Ghost Dog]

UK Office for National Statistics mid-year population estimate 2015, released 23/6/2016 is 65,110,000

Of these, 7,053,719 are under 18, so of the estimated UK resident population (2015), 58,056,281 are estimated to be of voting age.

The UK Electoral Commission reports that the electorate for the referendum was 46,500,001 registered deemed-eligible voters, of whom 72.2% voted. There were 25,359 rejected votes, 16,141,241 votes to remain in the EU and 17,410,742 to leave.

I have not yet compiled figures on the estimated number of UK residents who are not currently EU citizens, nor on the number of non-UK residents who formed part of the electorate, but in broad terms perhaps all can agree that those voting to leave the EU were approximately 30% of the eligible voting-age EU citizen residents in UK (includes, of course, UK citizens) and 27% of the total estimated population including those under 18 whose future is here so much at stake. I think it is reasonable to assume that those eligible who did not vote or did not register to vote did not feel strongly that the UK should leave the EU (and very probably break up the UK and possibly the EU too).

These are not enough votes here to justify such radical UK Constitutional and International Treaty change.

[LongtimeAZDem]

1. Decisions are made by the people who show up (nt)

[Ghost Dog]

4. Not in this case. n/t

[leveymg]

2. Before you can win a vote, first you have to turnout to vote.

72% turnout is higher than any UK General Election since 1992. The difference was 1.3 million votes. This wasn't a razor thin majority. Do you want to be the one who has to answer to the public for subverting their will?

[Ghost Dog]

3. 30% of expressed 'public will' for change. 70% no change.

It wasn't a vote between two candidates, nor between two fresh options going forward; it was about change or no change (and about internal Tory party politics). And it should never have taken place.

That, and the 'leave' campaign was fraudulent and the ' remain' campaign incompetent.

I would propose the annulment of this referendum, fraud and possibly treason investigations and civil cases for damages against some of the leading perps, a vote of no confidence in the House of Commons against the Cameron government (or even an intervention by the Head of State), and an immediate General Election, preferably with the introduction of properly proportional representation.

The consequences could hardly be worse than those currently looming.

[Denzil_DC]

5. Oh good grief.

OK, we'll go over it all again.

It wasn't a general election. Any sane government would set a relatively high hurdle of percentage if voting on fundamental changes. That's been the case in the UK in the past, for instance in a Scottish independence referendum some decades ago. Could you change the US Constitution on the basis of a 50/50 referendum? Didn't think so. 4% or 1 million people out of a population of 60-odd million isn't enough to ensure stability in the aftermath. The question wouldn't have been settled for good if the vote had gone precisely the other way, and Nigel Farage would have agreed with me on the night before the result was known I'm running out of the will to type now but maybe somebody else will come along and tag team eventually.

[Ghost Dog]

6. That's it, thanks.

Acts of the criminally insane.

[Ghost Dog]

7. Will Brexit Actually Happen?

...Granted, if the EU refuses to budge, other nullification scenarios remain in play. Since the law doesn't rule it out, for instance, parliament might override the referendum.

Conceivably, if that happened, the Leave campaign and its 17 million supporters would then say, "Oh, all right, if you (the more than 35 million who were not Leave supporters) feel that strongly, we'll stay."

Conceivably, the current spasm of paralysis in Westminster will lead to an early general election, with the traditional parties melting down and candidates aligning on Leave and Stay platforms, and the new Stay Party promising another vote with the threshold for Brexit set at 80 (or even 67) percent.

Conceivably, the Stay Party would win the election. That could happen...

http://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-06-29/will-brexit-actually-happen

(Comments in italics added).

[Denzil_DC]

8. When I have to go to the comments section of an Independent article for a coherent hot take on this,

we're at a pretty pass!

jokigenki
The Scottish independence referendum was announced 2 years before the vote. The EU referendum, 4 months. There was a 670 page document that was released that spelled out exactly what the plan would be after a Scottish Yes vote, the leave EU campaign had a webpage consisting of less than 1400 words. There was no mention of the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland or what would happen if Scotland wanted to remain in the EU, there is no mention of a plan to stabilise the pound in the event of a market crash, or how to stop companies leaving the UK. There isn't even any mention of when Article 50 would be invoked. How can you possibly say that this referendum should be respected when the people who voted for it couldn't possibly know what they were voting for?

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit-eu-referendum-bregret-leave-petition-second-remain-latest-will-we-leave-a7105116.html#commentsDiv

In a sane political setup with a Prime Minister who didn't just panic and immediately leap to join the toys he's thrown out of his pram, this result would be seen merely as a trigger to actually spend the time and money and resources drawing up detailed scenarios for Remain and Leave, then either put them to a binding referendum with a higher threshold than 50/50, or go into a general election with the parties setting out their stalls on one side or the other with people having a clearer idea of what they were voting for.

Unfortunately, there's no appetite among the two major parties in Westminster for not accepting the result. The SNP aren't, but have chosen to go their own way so far with their own (imperfect as it is) mandate from the vote; the Lib Dems have said they'd go into an election on a Remain platform.

Meanwhile, there's a grave suspicion that if some event intervened right now to make the result null and void, Johnson and Gove would likely be privately jumping for joy. Hell, even Farage (not that I give a damn what that soused old millionaire thinks) might be happy, because he's pissed off at how Leave are watering down what his tiny dishevelled mind imagined people had voted for, and doing the sane thing might give them a clearer crack at it (not to mention postponing the day when he and UKIP have to actually deliver anything except discord, vileness and chaos).

Have I mentioned what a clusterfuck all this is?