> First of all: I was not saying that this is necessarily the best choice, or that I endorse Remain or Leave. Oh I understand, my post is mostly aimed at those

> First of all: I was not saying that this is necessarily the best choice, or that I endorse Remain or Leave. Oh I understand, my post is mostly aimed at those who appear to believe defying the vote result will be just shrugged off as if it were just another case of politics. The working classes are quite hard to politicize, but once they are involved it is like a train speeding up on a track. The middle classes tend to have, ah, more flexible opinions and less conviction about the world and their beliefs shall we say. This isn't good or bad for either case, it's just so. I think the chattering classes are underestimating the effects of a backlash because they themselves are more flexible / less committed and their (wrong) intuition that everybody else is the same. Sure there are lots of enthusiastic and firm believers of <political paradigm> in the middle class, but they are a minority. Most middle class people will eventually accommodate the idea of a Britain without the EU. The working classes will not respond in the same way, because once they commit to a political ideal it is much harder to shift them. That's a grudge that's never going away, even if there somehow magically was no rioting. > I was just trying to explain what - from what I read so far - seems the most probable strategy for the next months. That would be my hunch too. Looks like we're about to enter interesting times. > Also, while the economic results of the Leave might be exaggerated (as part of the same strategy I was explaining) do you think that Leave supporters have properly considered the risks of splintering UK (Scotland, Northern Ireland and possibly Wales deciding to get independence)? No. I don't even think the Remain side considered this proper or they would have emphasized it much more in their propaganda instead of economics. However Scotland wants to leave anyway, Brexit is more of an pretext for that than a cause. I am confident Wales and Northern Ireland will stay with England. Politically speaking the Scots and Home Counties don't have a lot in common, the South is much more right wing than the North, so I don't think a 'deal' ameliorates the situation if it succeeds in Scotland staying and Britain stays in the EU. I suspect, and I'm not very sure of this, this is just a guess, that the EU officials are going to deny Scotland entry to the EU even if they become an independent state which will piss them off no end (this is to prevent a precedent setting off country fragmentation in Europe e.g. Catalonia). I think the closing of ranks against Juncker has something to do with this. Then an olive branch will be offered to the British. Obviously there's quite a gap between the cup and lip here so we'll have to wait and see.