At the last General Election a large majority of the MPs who were elected, from various parties, were committed to Remain as were most of the parties. If there is a new General Election, say in 2017, it might turn out that more Remain MPs are returned than Leave MPs, as before; and in that event, the referendum result would have plainly been superseded. So if an election is called, each candidate and each party will have to decide what line to take and what commitments to make. If the PM considers calling an early election (which is much more difficult post-2010 than it was before, remember), she will face a difficult dilemma in deciding which of her conflicting earlier commitments to repudiate. Interesting times.
As I mentioned, the government's appeal to the UK Supreme Court is doomed to failure, because they have got no case. Except it has been pointed out that they could make a case opposite to the previous one. The claimants' case in the High Court and the government's response were both predicated on the assumption that the Article 50 process once triggered would be irrevocable. The loss of rights, the effective repeal of statutes, etc would be inevitable and irreversible. That is why parliamentary authority is necessary. However the government could make an entirely different case, on the basis that the Article 50 process is not irreversible and could be withdrawn or discontinued at any time if the political climate changes. On that argument, the government could possibly win its appeal to the Supreme Court, but the consequence would be to leave Brexit/Remain as an open political question for debate in the usual way. Does anybody think the government might actually go for that option?
Politically it would be difficult because it would make the government vulnerable to the accusation of leaving the back door open and being less than committed to Brexit. The Brexit/Remain question was settled at the referendum and this option would reopen the debate and encourage the Remoaners, but it would also take us one step closer to Brexit. The priority now should be on getting the best possible terms for Brexit. I think a GE would be a less risky option. But who writes and who approves the election manifesto ? As you say, "interesting times".
Please remember that 48.1% of the people voted to remain in Europe, despite the huge propaganda campaign by the gutter press and the lies told by Boris and co. Should those people be completely disenfranchised?? Candidates when voted in, usually claim that they will strive to represent all the electorate, not just those that voted for them. This is not a clear mandate, it is at best a marginal vote, so any moves to disentangle ourselves from Europe should reflect that - a 'soft' Brexit at the most, there is no case at all for a 'hard' Brexit. Maybe if there had been a 75% vote to leave, there would have been.
It wasn't 48.1% though, it was? It was 34.7% who voted against. 37.5% voted in favour of Brexit and 27.8%, the potential voters who didn't know how to vote, or didn't care, were content to go along with the majority verdict. That means that 65.3% of the electorate supported Brexit. I wish folks would stop ignoring this fact, it really gives a false impression of the result.
To add to what Loz has already said. Unfortunately we are either in the EU or we are not, it is a binary choice. We now need to get the best possible deal for the whole of the UK, and that doesn't mean we stay in, although I am sure that many would think so, but they have to recognise that they were in the minority.
And again I remind people that, if the anti-democratic nature of the EU doesn't put off Remoaners ... they certainly aren't going to worried by a trivial matter such as a referendum result. Remoaners know best.
I'm not convinced that the Tories would win a majority if there were an election tomorrow. There were many people persuaded to vote Tory at the last minute at the last election, many of whom also voted to remain as part of the EU. From talking to friends and colleagues who did this (and that includes me) i can tell you I have yet to hear of one who would vote Tory at the next election. Most say they will vote Libdem. I very much doubt that May would have a majority and the Brexit voters may find there worst fears confirmed by Jeremy Corbyn being PM of a Libedm/SNP/Labour coalition.
