Show respect

it does seem tragic that so many people are googling 'What is the E.U.?' AFTER the referendum.

Feeling sad about the outcome of the Referendum but even more upset about the way people turn on each other and start to lay the blame for the country's ills on others. Reading correspondence on the Guardian website, there are many posters blaming 'the old people, the people who have had it easy with their cheap housing, generous pensions etc ' for voting OUT and not caring about the future of the young.
Some suggesting punishing the old -'take away their bus passes, free television licences and index-linked pensions'.
As somebody who worked hard to encourage people to vote 'IN' and know many other old people who actually did, I find it terribly depressing to be the target of so much hatred and blame.

It won't be the life we thought we had. Its too sad to just 'suck up'! Read some of the posts from Grans now directly affected.

Is a democratic vote only acceptable if it gets the result you want? FGS no-one has died!! Suck it up and get on with life.

I have just seen a yoing woman on the local news who said she had voted leave. She has got up this morning and seen the effect of the vote - and now wishes she had voted remain. So apparently do the rest of her family. I hate referenda and particularly badly designed ones like this. Any referendum which asks for a decision which will basically change the way in which a country operates should NEVER have a decision point at 50%+1 - this is ridiculous. There should be a minimum turnout, possibly 70%, and at least a mjority of 60% - this gives a clear large majority of the country who want to change rather than this divisive result we have now. I don't know of any other major referendum that has been organised this way.

You are quite right Jane, I should have written the voting population. Apologies.

* Lucky* there was a rule which said 75% of voters needed to vote and there should be 60% voting for change to the status quo for a referendum to be valid. This is why at least one of the Irish ones failed a few years ago. There is a petition wanting a second referendum because of this - it passed the 100,000 within a few hours of being posted and the site crashed a few times!!

It's the way I feel at this moment. So suck it up.

38% of the electortate voted to leave. Presimably those who didn't bother to vote were quite happy with things as they are.

You are spot on about believing or not in democracy, niggly. I'm beginning to think far fewer people believe in it than I had previously supposed (and hoped!).

Goodnight all

It's a special skills she has, joelsnan. A hey ho shrug is probably the best response at this juncture.

Jinglebellsfrock your mischief making is amazing.

Actually I wouldn't give a tinker's cuss for the poor stupid moronic xenophobic racist working class at the moment. Perhaps in a few days I may recover a bit of love for my fellow man. Give me time.

Government is best left to the people with some brain cells nigglynellie. That's all.

Again, I totally agree with Ican. The disdain and arrogance of some people towards people whom they clearly consider beneath them in every respect is breathtaking! Do you believe in democracy or don't you? or is democracy only for the intellectual and chattering classes who of course know what's best for the poor, stupid moronic,racist xenophobic working class; an attitude I'd have been sent to my room for expressing when I was young by my deeply Conservative parents. Surely the language we use has moved on since then when expressing our disappointment and displeasure at being thwarted by our so called intellectual inferiors be they young or old?

Dislike understood, jane10. What would you suggest instead? I find "the masses" unlikeable because of its inherent disdainfulness. It seems to me there is an assumption in the use of phrases like it that most people are somehow inferior to a a group that is looking down on them. An assumption that people haven't enough gumption to be able to make decisions about who should govern them. An assumption, to use something Tony Benn said, that "a good king is better than a bad democracy".

I'm with him in thinking that a bad democracy is still better than a kingship or emperorship type government, which is what I think the EU is fast becoming if it's not there already.

I love Europe. The EU is not Europe.

Not overnight Ican.

I intensely dislike the phrase 'ordinary people'! We're all ordinary people.

It's pretty obvious. Even you must know how much anti-migrant feeling, not to say racial hatred, there is in many parts of the country. Why else would there have been such a high turn-out?

No ican - only 51% of those who voted.

How do you know, jings? Another disdainful assumption. This disdain for ordinary people is a big part of the problem that's caused the desire for an EU referendum in the first place.

Isn't it funny how overnight 51% of the population have suddenly become bigots, thick, and every other insult the Remain voters can hurl at them. Many of the people I know didn't vote because they were bigots, they are well educated and did a lot of research themselves to make up their mind. Many don't like the cumbersome bureaucracy, the lack of proper representation on things that affect their lives and an organisation who is not prepared to listen to people's fears. They recognise they could do nothing from within and felt forced to vote leave. Some of my best friends are European, I personally don't feel any less European that I did yesterday and I find it really sad people cannot agree to respect others right to vote as they see fit. It is breathtaking arrogance to think you know better than someone else without walking in their shoes. Whatever political differences I may have with my friends, family and fellow Europeans, I respect them without feeling I have to belittle them for their views. Who knows what tomorrow brings? None of us has a crystal ball and it may turn out to be the best decision we ever made. Now perhaps people will see that campaigning for what you want, using your vote, etc can work to get a majority view and we can change our Political System to ensure we actually get that.

It!/ the masses I am referring to. The ones who dragged themselves to the polling stations probably for the first time in their lives. Because they can't usually be arsed to vote.

thatbags, I agree with you. Not one of the campaigners made any attempt to engage with or reassure the ordinary man/woman on the street whose lives and families are just as important to them as those of the fat cats and 'educated' lot are.

Too busy scaremongering and threatening the worst.