Tories and Labour are paying the price for taking the electorate for granted.
By Cllr John Marriott - Lincoln, Sleaford and North Hykeham
Originally published by South Lincolnshire Liberal Democrats
It probably wasn't Immigration 52%, the Economy 48%, but it certainly was a verdict from those who have suffered most from globalisation and inequality, as well as those who are not prepared to accept that the world has changed.
You can't spend twenty years rubbishing the EU as many pro Remain Tories have done and then suddenly become its reluctant friend. Are politicians like Nick Clegg now regretting that answer he gave to a questioner in one of his debates with Nigel Farage that he envisaged the EU in ten years time to be "more or less the same"?
I have a feeling that the Prime Minister was counting on a continuation of a coalition with the Lib Dems after the 2015 General Election to scupper any possibility of an EU referendum which he had to include in the Conservative Party's Manifesto to placate its increasingly large Eurosceptic wing.
When push came to shove I would argue that it was the Labour Party, whose ability, or lack of it, to get their Remain message across in their Northern heartlands, who allowed the balance to tip towards Brexit.
I am convinced that many ordinary citizens have for some time felt themselves to be disconnected from the prosperity that many of us, particularly in the South East, have enjoyed, thanks to a great extent to our membership of the EU.
Their vote to leave the EU was, to a considerable extent, a reaction to globalisation, minimal wages, zero hours contracts as well as multi nationals, whose business ethos does not recognise frontiers or governments, for whom the EU has become a safe and profitable haven. Despite the fact that most of their problems are, in reality, the fault of successive national governments, as usual, it was the 'unelected bureaucrats' of Brussels who were the main whipping boys.
Finally I hope that the 'winners' of this referendum will show more humility than hubris. After all, they succeeded on a wing and a prayer. Much will depend on who our Prime Minister will be when the serious negotiations on Brexit eventually begin in earnest. Unfortunately we can't hold a referendum to decide that. As Chuka Umunna said in the early hours of Friday morning, 48% of us did not vote to leave the EU.
Cllr John Marriott