And what makes you think that the referendum was a 'strategy designed to sort out a few troublesome members of his own party'? Anyone who had done any research at all knew that 1) the country has been split down the middle on this issue for decades and 2) that we had been promised referendums on the issue twice in the past, only for those promises to be reneged upon. I think the only issue with him is his clear miscalculation as to how many people would be taken in by the - now admitted - false claims of the Brexiteers.
Well now, is it not the case that the Tory party has been blighted by 'Eurosceptics' for years now, and iirc John Major referred to them as 'bastards'.
Since when has the 'country been split down the middle on this for decades' on Europe? The only naysayers seemed to be Tories and we don't have too many of them here in Scotland, and bearing in mind that in 2014 we were constantly told that if we wanted to stay in the EU (and we do, as last weeks result confirms) we needed to stay in the UK then no wonder we look askance at the incompetence surrounding this result.
Cameron, in the 2015 manifesto, agreed a referendum because he was expecting another coalition with the Lib-Dems and expected that the removal of the referendum commitment would be part of that deal - but the Lib-Dems and Labour imploded at the ballot box so he had to proceed, no doubt assuming 'Remain' would win - with catastrophic results, as is evident from both the immediate failure to implement Article 50 and the leadership chaos in the the Labour and Tory parties. It would be fitting if some of the Monty Python team jumped in declaring 'nobody expected Brexit' (in the style of their Spanish Inquisition sketch).
Cameron is the proverbial turkey who voted for Christmas - but he went further by laying the table, inviting the guests, putting himself on the menu and then helpfully climbing into the oven whilst closing the door behind him.
I'm surprise that you defend him at all.
