There is an old saying that a week is a long time in politics, which the events of this past seven days have proved sage indeed. I must confess that when I wrote my previous article about the "what ifs" of a Brexit vote in the UK, I didn't really expect it would extend beyond a bit of harmless speculation.

But now the UK has proved that the worst aspect of democracy is you can't tell the people what to decide. We are faced with a situation unprecedented in my working life where the country has made a decision about which it has no clear idea of the consequences.

The problem with voting for Brexit and the principle of the UK "taking control" is there is no clear indication of how the government is going to do that — because no one has opted out of the European Union before. What does this mean for the heating and cooling industry in the UK? Let's take a look at all that has transpired in the last several days.

If the Brexit campaigners thought they could follow the decision with a calm and considered period of reflection, they thought wrong. Early indications are that the remaining EU member states are in no mood for the party pooper to be hanging around the party.

Added to that is the complication that the majority of those we elected to govern us — the UK parliament — were in favor of remaining. Added to the turmoil that comes with leaping into the unknown, we have had inner turmoil. And how.

In the space of the first four days after the vote, the decision has seen the resignation of Prime Minister David Cameron and the resignation of half the opposition Cabinet, a mass protest that seems highly likely to see the end of the leader of the opposition Jeremy Corbyn — either by his own sword or someone else's — in due course.

It is political intrigue worthy of Netflix's "House of Cards," or perhaps more akin to HBO's "Veep" in the sheer chaotic absurdity of it all. The weekend's twists to the tale included a chorus of MPs suggesting that the mandate of 40 percent of the population (the proportion who voted Brexit times the percentage turnout) should not be enough to change the course of governance.

A petition on the Parliament's own online petitioning platform is calling for a re-run, on the basis that many people who voted Brexit had been misinformed. The fact that at the time of writing this petition had reached 2.5 million signatures should amply demonstrate that this was not simply a lone voice.

So that is the turbulent political climate, but I am sure what you will really want to know the answer to is: What will happen to the F-Gas Regulation and all those EU laws under which the UK cooling and heating industry operates?

The good news — at least as far as those who have invested in meeting the F-Gas targets and are converting to lower-GWP systems — is that F-Gas will remain business as usual, since the Regulation has already been transposed into UK law. The same is likely to apply to all those EU directives that have been introduced in recent years, from the Energy Performance in Buildings Directive to the Renewables Directive.

What is more up for debate is what happens to those laws that have not yet been transposed, and to the more nebulous strategies and targets. The UK, as I have mentioned before, was due before the European Court to face charges over failing to meet EU air quality goals. I can imagine that post-Brexit the government will be inclined to avoid facing such strictures — and punishments — if it can get away with it.

But I wouldn't want anyone to think it is effectively business as usual for the UK cooling industry, because there is one element that does appear to be having a significant effect, and that is the general climate of uncertainty that is spooking the investors and financial markets alike.

In the first few days alone, we have been hearing that developers are pulling the plug on construction projects in the UK — to the point of ringing architects to pull them off the job — and in turn plunging contractors and their supply chains into chaos. Others have declared they are suspending activity for an unspecified period of time; apparently until the financial markets settle down.

And the financial markets themselves present a major issue for UK companies trading in Europe (and the U.S. for that matter) as the weak pound causes problems with exchange rates. One supplier told me he was battening down the hatches for a couple of weeks, not paying any of his European mainland customers until the markets are a bit calmer. Many in the industry are going to follow his example, inevitably creating a further lull in activity as a result.

For the UK it seems clear, for the short term at least, that it is a waiting game.