Brexit, if it happens as we all fear will make the UK the Puerto Rico of Europe. No, not really... Puerto Rico has more rights as a commonwealth of the US than Britain will have in association with the EU. Puerto Rico can stay outside the union while people of that semi independent nation are full citizens of the union with free trade, free movement, and even serve on our supreme court.  All they need to do to join is hold a binding referendum and have statehood win with a 2/3 vote on a high voter turnout.

Yes, I know. Some have compared Puerto Rico to Greece.  Those who do don't get it.  Most of us emotionally regard PR as being the 51st state in all but name.   The remainder who don't hold to the , theory of our union being a federation of nations.  A sort of "I am a citizen of IL/MI/CA one of the United states" kind of way. The United States will act in Congress to bail it out, by allowing PR to use the same bankruptcy provisions as US cities, without demanding full statehood. No one will mind after all California carries Michigan.  We are united it is who we are. 

The Brexit crisis has happened due to the failure of the EU's leaders to by treaty or actual "constitution" form a more perfect federal union.   They failed to become a US of Europe in the sense that we have under the current federal constitution of the United States.  They instead choose to form a weak confederation which we already proved was unworkable.  The only thing that can save the EU now would be for some wise men to convene a constitutional convention to devise a document similar to the US constitution and similarly requiring only a 2/3 vote to come into effect for those nations that have ratified it to use it instead of the current unworkable EU structure.  Let any country that does not ratify exit the EU with no hard feelings and a path to become a full EU member by ratification.

One other thing to remember about this brexit referendum is that it is not legally binding.  Parliament has to act.   It also does not meet the EU standard for binding referenda where 75% of eligible voters must participate and a 2/3 vote is required.  A petition to this effect has gained four times the number of signatures it needs to be considered by the UK parliament.   I would also point out, that Scotland and Northern Ireland voted to stay in the EU.  Those nations are part of the UK because of the promise that as part of the EU they are part of a much bigger organization.  Instead of being close to home territories ruled from Whitehall they were almost it's equal in the EU.  Now someone in Northern Ireland may conceivably end up needing to go through customs to get to the rest of Ireland.  This will not make the people there happy at all.   The supremacy of British Parliament in London is exactly what people in those countries of the UK do not want.  What they will want is to answer the West Lothian question with finality. 

The days of the UK as we know it will be numbered in months  if this goes forward.

Those of us younger people who want a future free of war in western/central Europe need to act.  Those of you in the UK who are 18-49 who mostly voted for remain need to act.  You are the ones that have to live for decades with a result arrived at by grandparents aged people who will soon be dead.  They hold a nostalgic and absurd view based on a fictional history of the world.  An attitude  that sounds like Connie Sachs, a character from the book/movie "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy". 
Connie (looking through old photographs): All my boys. All my lovely boys. That was a good time, George.
George: It was The War, Connie.
Connie: A real war. Englishmen could be proud then.
Yes back when Britain saved democracy all by itself... with a little help from the Soviet Union and the US.

TLDR: Old pensioners nostalgic for a time that never existed have screwed the younger generations and their children in the UK.  As soon as they are no longer gliding on the heights they were raised to under the EU their Puerto Rico with less rights and power status will be clear.   Mark my words and wait say 15 years.