Historically the EU plays hardball with dissenters. The leavers are gambling that our trading relationships are essential to the EU - but unfortunately they really aren't. So it's unwise to expect anything too conciliatory from Brussels.
What is clear is that if the UK does leave it will have spent the last forty years building up the City as the key European/World financial center, and then thrown away that advantage through the actions of a small clique of overly ambitious and utterly dishonest politicians.
And if you take away the City, no one in power has any idea at all how to build a 21st century economy - never mind a 20th century economy, or even a 19th century economy.
While the rest of Europe will be developing new startups, England will be playing with its union jack and wondering if maybe it should build a big navy again.
The referendum result was 52-48, with some people regretting their decision since they only meant it as a protest against the current government. Others are furious that the things they thought they voted for (money for healthcare, much reduced immigration) have already been backtraced upon by politicians.
We live in interesting times.
(I'm British and live in Denmark, so I have a clear bias in this.)