2016 EU Referendum

Summary

In an attempt to keep potential UKIP voters and his backbench MPs on side, Cameron agreed to hold a referendum on the UK's membership of the EU in the 2015 general election. They won and Cameron had to follow through with the promise.

The Campaign

There was a lot of wank about who was going to be the "official" leave campaign with Leave.EU and Vote Leave going head-to-head. Vote Leave eventually won, facing off against Britain Stronger In Europe for the remain camp.

Lots of people weren't happy with the way things were conducted throughout the campaign - there was talk of vote rigging and a push to make sure that all leave voters voted with a pen no pencil so MI5 couldn't rub out the result and change it to what they wanted.

The remain campaign's main message came down to "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!?!?" and the leave campaign was "Lets spend the amount of money I pulled out of the air on something you might care about and also get rid of foreigners".

The Result

In the end, the leave campaign won with 52% of the vote to 48%.

Despite this, both Scotland and Northern Ireland voted to remain in the UK sparking yet another constitutional crisis. Good job, Cameron.

The Fallout

Hate crimes in the week after the referendum were 5 times higher than the weekly reported average, the pound dropped off the edge of a cliff and everyone in Europe came out to say what idiots the British people are.

Then the government was taken to Court over how Brexit was meant to be implemented (whether the government could trigger Article 50 with or without an Act of Parliament). The Supreme Court ruled that a Act of Parliament was necessary and so the Supreme Court became the "Enemies of the People" and campaigners who had been advocating for parliamentary sovereignty against the EU were appalled that parliament had to pass an Act instead of the government just doing what it wanted.

The government introduced the European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Bill which was super short and caused a lot of wank including the threat of reform of the House of Lords if their dared to amend/reject the bill.

Party Political Fallout

The Conservative Party Fallout

David Cameron made a speech shortly after the vote results were announced saying that he would step down in time for the Conservative Party conference in October 2016. The 1922 Committee didn't think that was soon enough and instigated a timetable culminating in Theresa May bring made Prime Minister after a lot of fuckery.

Most of the Cameroons lost their places in government - George Osborne and Michael Gove were banished to the backbenches and anyone who was vaguely chummy with Cameron was cut out as a way to try and detoxify the part of the legacy of Cameron. This had the incredibly unfortunate result of making Boris Johnson Foreign Secretary.

The Liberal Democrat Fallout

The result made the Liberal Democrats and in particular Tim Farron think the party was relevant again as it pledged to stand on a platform at a general election on not implementing Brexit.

The Labour Party

Much of the Remain camp were angry with leader Jeremy Corbyn over the way he had conducted himself during the campaign, with grandees such as Chris Bryant and Peter Mandelson claiming that not only was Corbyn in favour of Brexit but that he actively sabotaged the Remain campaign even though it was meant to be Labour policy.

This anger, combined with the growing anger since Corbyn took over the leadership and the sacking of Hilary Benn, ended up with mass Cabinet walk out, Corbyn losing a vote of no confidence in him 172-40 in the PLP and almost constant calls for him to step aside.

The Brexit Process

Theresa May officially triggered Article 50 at 12.30pm on 29 March 2017 when her formal letter was delivered to Donald Tusk.

TRIGGERED!!!!.