alt Hacker News… I mean, if whoever proposes it never wants to be elected again, then sure. However, the EU in no way stopped the UK from doing that; common sense stops it from doing that. It would simply be politically untenable.
The UK has a severe problem with NIMBYism; not being in Europe wouldn’t just make that magically go away. In practice, the UK leaving the EU will likely hurt infrastructural development; doing so has damaged the British economy, and the UK now simply can’t afford it (big, forward-thinking infra work is about the first thing to get defunded when budgets are tight, generally, and the British budget isn’t just tight, it’s a black hole).
Yet they would get elected again - since if it passed through Parliament it has the support of the majority of representatives and if it was done properly the consultation would have happened ahead of the decision.
Once the decision is made the minorities objecting to it can be cleared out of the way - because they have already had their say in Parliament via their representatives.
Also budgets in the U.K. are never tight and we can always afford anything we have the people to do.