Lessons from tragedy and romance of British politics

The turmoil also caused alarm around the world; China's finance minister said fallout from Thursday's referendum "will cast a shadow over the global economy" while a senior official in Tokyo warned of the danger of "speculative, violent moves" in currencies.

FORMER British Prime Minister David Cameron went for the Brexit referendum to strengthen his position in the Conservative party and end the warring among the Tories over the European Union, thinking the Brexiteers would lose.

His complacent and cavalier approach to the referendum in the British system of representative (not direct) democracy, without a robust presentation of the facts, resulted in a campaign driven by passion, emotion, prejudice and lies – and the vote by a whisker a year ago to get out of the EU.