Brit peas - so Boris rules himself out!

Is that pronounced Piffle? I'm glad he isn't running, he comes across as a totally spineless tit.

I've not seen the news yet. Damn the man and his stirring!

TBH there are none that appeal to me as leader. Can we not just turn the clock back?

I have felt from his first press conference after the result was announced that Johnson had not expected Leave to win, and really had no idea what to do next. I also think they were blind-sided by Cameron basically saying 'well, you got us into this mess, now you can fix it' as he resigned.
I believe Boris has worked out that he is F#ed whatever he does: Becomes leader, triggers Brexit, country has recession - he's over and remembered for that. Becomes leader, doesn't trigger Brexit - is remembered as the turncoat who didn't keep his word. Or he can quit now, having 'won' the referendum, and just be seen as a coward who wouldn't follow through for a few months, until the new leader does one of the above.

sueg A commentator on The Guardian website said pretty much that

The post reads:

If Boris Johnson looked downbeat yesterday, that is because he realises that he has lost.

Perhaps many Brexiters do not realise it yet, but they have actually lost, and it is all down to one man: David Cameron.

With one fell swoop yesterday at 9:15 am, Cameron effectively annulled the referendum result, and simultaneously destroyed the political careers of Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and leading Brexiters who cost him so much anguish, not to mention his premiership.

How?

Throughout the campaign, Cameron had repeatedly said that a vote for leave would lead to triggering Article 50 straight away. Whether implicitly or explicitly, the image was clear: he would be giving that notice under Article 50 the morning after a vote to leave. Whether that was scaremongering or not is a bit moot now but, in the midst of the sentimental nautical references of his speech yesterday, he quietly abandoned that position and handed the responsibility over to his successor.

And as the day wore on, the enormity of that step started to sink in: the markets, Sterling, Scotland, the Irish border, the Gibraltar border, the frontier at Calais, the need to continue compliance with all EU regulations for a free market, re-issuing passports, Brits abroad, EU citizens in Britain, the mountain of legistlation to be torn up and rewritten ... the list grew and grew.

The referendum result is not binding. It is advisory. Parliament is not bound to commit itself in that same direction.

The Conservative party election that Cameron triggered will now have one question looming over it: will you, if elected as party leader, trigger the notice under Article 50?

Who will want to have the responsibility of all those ramifications and consequences on his/her head and shoulders?

Boris Johnson knew this yesterday, when he emerged subdued from his home and was even more subdued at the press conference. He has been out-maneouvered and check-mated.

If he runs for leadership of the party, and then fails to follow through on triggering Article 50, then he is finished. If he does not run and effectively abandons the field, then he is finished. If he runs, wins and pulls the UK out of the EU, then it will all be over - Scotland will break away, there will be upheaval in Ireland, a recession ... broken trade agreements. Then he is also finished. Boris Johnson knows all of this. When he acts like the dumb blond it is just that: an act.

The Brexit leaders now have a result that they cannot use. For them, leadership of the Tory party has become a poison chalice.

When Boris Johnson said there was no need to trigger Article 50 straight away, what he really meant to say was “never”. When Michael Gove went on and on about “informal negotiations” ... why? why not the formal ones straight away? ... he also meant not triggering the formal departure. They both know what a formal demarche would mean: an irreversible step that neither of them is prepared to take.

All that remains is for someone to have the guts to stand up and say that Brexit is unachievable in reality without an enormous amount of pain and destruction, that cannot be borne. And David Cameron has put the onus of making that statement on the heads of the people who led the Brexit campaign.

I was a school governor when he was Minister for Education. How he went about the changes he implemented horrified me, so I am not a fan at all.  He doesn't seem to like experts - always dangerous.

Won't be surprised if it's him and Theresa May. I said to my DH that if May wins and Angela Eagle wins the Labour leadership with Nicola Strugeon in Scotland and Leanne Wood in Wales, the place will be run by women.

Well, in theory Parliament could, but it would be political suicide for many MPs to try and stop it now. They offered us all a vote and it would be very difficult not to follow through. 

I am deeply disappointed to discover that Boris is the coward I always suspected - leaving someone else to carry out his dirty work. Michael Gove is a chinless wonder who won't listen to anyone. Teresa May campaign (quietly) for Remain, so it would be interesting to see how she implemented the Brexit.

I thought Boris might have been the person who could negotiate his way through this - but even he said, before the referendum, that a 'No' vote was a way to negotiate a better deal with the rest of Europe rather than ACTUALLY leaving. However the rest of Europe (rightly so) doesn't seem to agree with that and wants us to exit as soon as possible.

^I absolutely agree!  

Thank you for the discussion and links.