The government listened to the wrong advice it gave itself

The government's own advice on referenda, from 2010. There certainly are some interesting nuggets here.

"Two options should generally be preferred, as this avoids ambiguous results and should help voter comprehension."

Yes. Giving people two over-simplified choices to an extremely complex problem was definitely, definitely the best thing to do. How marvellous it was to be able to reduce the complex treaties and economic arrangements of the last few decades to, "Brexit means Brexit" ! We wouldn't have wanted to have actually considered what "Brexit means Brexit" actually means in any detail, heavens no !

"The Government agrees that there should be a presumption against turnout thresholds. These have the potential to distort the result of a poll and frustrate the express will of the people, in some cases effectively turning abstentions into 'no' votes."

Oh yes, wasn't it just marvellous when a small majority of mostly older racist people who live in the countryside and have never even caught sight of any of those nasty brown people decided that they had the absolute right to overturn decades on economic and social policies, despite it being a small and highly indecisive result ? Yes, it definitely would have been very silly indeed to require a clear majority to change the status quo. Nice one people !

And then some more sensible ideas :

"We recognise that because of the sovereignty of Parliament, referendums cannot be legally binding in the UK, and are therefore advisory. However, it would be difficult for Parliament to ignore a
decisive expression of public opinion."

"Response: The Government agrees with this recommendation. Under the UK's constitutional arrangements Parliament must be responsible for deciding whether or not to take action in response to a referendum result."

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201011/ldselect/ldconst/34/3404.htm