Man, I thought the US was in bad shape with Trump vs. Hillary. I checked the result when I woke up in the middle of the night and you're PM quit, Northern Ireland and Scotland are about to secede, and 5% of my life savings is gone.

If Boris Johnson and Michael Gove have looked downbeat over the past few days, that is because they realise that they have lost and they know that Brexit is not achievable...

Perhaps many Brexiters do not realise it yet, but they have actually lost, and it is all down to one man: David Cameron.

With one fell swoop at 9:15 am on Friday, Cameron effectively annulled the referendum result, and simultaneously destroyed the political careers of Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and leading Brexiters who cost him so much anguish, not to mention his premiership.

How?

Throughout the campaign, Cameron had repeatedly said that a vote for leave would lead to triggering Article 50 straight away. Whether implicitly or explicitly, the image was clear: he would be giving that notice under Article 50 the morning after a vote to leave. Whether that was scaremongering or not is a bit moot now but, in the midst of the sentimental nautical references of his speech on Friday, he quietly abandoned that position and handed the responsibility over to his successor.

And as the day wore on, the enormity of that step started to sink in: the markets, Sterling, Scotland, the Irish border, the Gibraltar border, the frontier at Calais, the need to continue compliance with all EU regulations for a free market, re-issuing passports, Brits abroad, EU citizens in Britain, the mountain of legistlation to be torn up and rewritten ... the list grew and grew.

The referendum result is not binding. It is advisory. Parliament is not bound to commit itself in that same direction.

The Conservative party election that Cameron triggered will now have one question looming over it: will you, if elected as party leader, trigger the notice under Article 50?

Who will want to have the responsibility of all those ramifications and consequences on his/her head and shoulders?

Boris Johnson knew this on Friday, when he emerged subdued from his home and was even more subdued at the press conference. He has been out-maneouvered and check-mated.

If he runs for leadership of the party, and then fails to follow through on triggering Article 50, then he is finished. If he does not run and effectively abandons the field, then he is finished. If he runs, wins and pulls the UK out of the EU, then it will all be over - Scotland will break away, there will be upheaval in Ireland, a recession ... broken trade agreements. Then he is also finished. Boris Johnson knows all of this.

The Brexit leaders now have a result that they cannot use. For them, leadership of the Tory party has become a poisoned chalice.

When Boris Johnson said there was no need to trigger Article 50 straight away, what he really meant to say was "never". When Michael Gove went on and on about "informal negotiations" ... why? why not the formal ones straight away? ... he also meant not triggering the formal departure. They both know what a formal demarche would mean: an irreversible step that neither of them is prepared to take.

All that remains is for someone to have the guts to stand up and say that Brexit is unachievable in reality without an enormous amount of pain and destruction, that cannot be borne. And David Cameron has put the onus of making that statement on the heads of the people who led the Brexit campaign.

Ps- This letter is taken from The Guardian on Saturday the 25th June. I know I said I'd stop talking about the EU, but I've gained around 5000 new followers in the past few days which shows people are looking for commentary on this issue????
Sent from my iPhone

Guardian are pro-EU. Conveniently they had "EU" nationals as columnists who just so happened to claim, without supporting evidence, people had told them they would be "going home".

The fact is that's a fantasy of Remainers. It's however undermined by reality.

The best time for Cameron to go is around the time of the party conference. Makes it easier for new leader to unite the party ( or try to ).

Cameron issues Article 50 NOW, then he's involved in 3 months of exit negotiations. He then resigns. Negotations left in limbo for months as leadership contest kicks on.

Allowing new leader to issue the Article 50 means the new leader has their negotiating goals in place, their team in place.

Which makes more sense? The latter clearly. It also allows the Eu to wipe their overworking arses and try a deal. Due to the egos involved, that won't happen.

Meanwhile we've got rubbish about "2nd referendum" - ignoring the fact you can't change the rules of a referendum after it happened because you don't like the result. It's also been manipulated by 4chan for the lolz.

35k signatures from Vatican City. Population 800.
25k from North Korea, a place well renowned for internet usage by it's people...
Even penguins from Antarctica have signed.

The doom and gloom predicted hasn't happened, yet. Granted it's more a medium / long term game by the sky hasn't fallen in.