A Song of Patriotic Prejudice
I got up early yesterday to vote before catching the train to work. The polling station was busy enough for 7.20am. When I arrived in London, the tube was unusually busy - queues outside Lancaster Gate and an absolutely full circulating area at Bond Street - due presumably to disruption caused by bad weather elsewhere. It turned out none of my colleagues were voting until after work, but I had concerns about having time if there were either technical or transport problems later in the day.
I powered up the laptop at around 10pm in order to keep an eye on things while watching Dimbleby on the TV. I could see things weren't going well after the Newcastle and Sunderland results, which was also about the time I had to check a minor technical issue. I went to bed around 1.30am, feeling concerned that it looked like Leave was generally doing better than expected. Either it would be the same in the morning, or it would be better.
Of course in the morning, it was the same. The trains were curiously quiet this morning; I heard of Cameron's resignation on the way in to Paddington. The office was subdued, watching the pound (and bitcoin, gold, the FTSE and other markets) with a car-crash fascination. There's been a code-freeze since Wednesday, so there was little to do other than pick up a background task, keep an eye on alerts, and read various live blogs.
After a couple of attempts, I'm still too angry to write much coherently, so I have only a few points to which I may add in subsequent posts.
I powered up the laptop at around 10pm in order to keep an eye on things while watching Dimbleby on the TV. I could see things weren't going well after the Newcastle and Sunderland results, which was also about the time I had to check a minor technical issue. I went to bed around 1.30am, feeling concerned that it looked like Leave was generally doing better than expected. Either it would be the same in the morning, or it would be better.
Of course in the morning, it was the same. The trains were curiously quiet this morning; I heard of Cameron's resignation on the way in to Paddington. The office was subdued, watching the pound (and bitcoin, gold, the FTSE and other markets) with a car-crash fascination. There's been a code-freeze since Wednesday, so there was little to do other than pick up a background task, keep an eye on alerts, and read various live blogs.
After a couple of attempts, I'm still too angry to write much coherently, so I have only a few points to which I may add in subsequent posts.
- Cameron will, after all, be remembered as the Prime Minister responsible for the break-up of the UK, all for the sake of holding the Conservative party together for a couple of years.
- There will be open warfare in the Labour party over Corbyn's leadership, with a widening split between the parliamentary party and grass roots.
- Scotland will leave the UK and rejoin the EU - for me this seems pretty much a foregone conclusion; Sturgeon would be mad not to seek it, unless EU/UK negotiations turn out much more cordially than I foresee. But it will have to join the Euro.
- I've signed the change.org petition for London independence. It seems far-fetched, but there's plainly a split between London and the rest of the England (with few exceptions), with each side having contempt for the other. I live in one and work in the other, but for all my working life I have actually been an economic migrant.