Quote Originally Posted by Burney View Post
It goes a bit deeper than that. Essentially, you're saying is that EU membership has eaten so deeply into the bones of this country's democracy that it is simply too complicated and damaging to separate the two without killing the patient. This rather confirms what every Eurosceptic has been saying for the last 40 years.

If we cannot democratically unhitch ourselves from this monster, we are admitting that our democracy is not just undermined, but actually dead. The inescapable conclusion would be that the people may not govern themselves because the politicians and bureaucrats have sold their democratic birthright for a mess of pottage. The notion of national self-determination would be dead and we would effectively be told we must accept vassalage.

The consequences of such an admission are potentially disastrous - far more so, I would argue, than any negative short-term economic consequences.
Nah, you're making it more significant than it really is and being a bit of a drama queen. Entering the EU was complicated because that's the nature of these sorts of negotiations. Take a look at how long it takes any two countries to agree a trade deal, then imagine that across a much larger number of countries with different cultures, governments etc etc

Extracting yourself from something that is very complicated is very complicated. It says nothing about our democracy, it was just always going to be very hard of have a very large number of potential outcomes.