A triumph for our democracy

THE EU referendum was democracy as it should be. A long, bruising, passionate debate, a huge turnout — and the people delivering their verdict loud and clear.

David Cameron has accepted it with grace and rightly resigned. He always knew his job was on the line.

Despite our Brexit differences, we backed the Prime Minister at two ­elections and are sorry to see him go.

He is a fine family man and a great fighter for causes he believes in.

He deserves praise for his education and welfare reforms and especially for nurturing the economy back to health.

Last year he spared Britain the calamity of an Ed Miliband Government.

We hope history remembers him for those as well as this career-ending ­referendum. Sadly we doubt it will.

Boris Johnson and Michael Gove look understandably shell-shocked.

But they struck the tone The Sun wanted to hear by directly appealing to young Remain supporters and advertising post-Brexit Britain as a model of openness . . . in Europe but not the EU.

Now, as they said, is the time to reunite and inspire the country for the future.

Britain will still be friends with other European nations. We will still buy their cars and spend our holiday pounds there.

But there is a vastly bigger world to embrace and trade with, and whose best minds we will welcome to our shores.

We will need a new dedicated minister for trade to begin negotiating deals now.

Our greatest ally, the US, will sit down with us next year whoever is President.

The Sun is not convinced by SNP talk of a new independence vote. Only 62 per cent of Scots backed Remain despite its support from all major parties. And SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon is canny enough to weigh up the costs and benefits of being in the UK against joining the EU.

Would the EU want an independent Scotland? Would it subsidise the Scots as much as England does? It’s unlikely.

As for the EU’s leaders, their regrets over Brexit yesterday were hard to stomach. We wonder if they also regret their stubborn refusal to compromise.

We hope it has now been proven that Brits will ignore political lectures from rich celebs — and opponents calling them morons. Remainers may feel like no one listened to them. Now they know how the working class have felt for years.

Finally, we urge everyone to calm down. The world hasn’t ended. Britain has changed a little, that’s all.

It will prove a great decision for our country. And 17,410,742 people backed it.

Onward and upward . . . it’s a new day for our nation.