Morning BritGAF, where's the postivity-o-meter this morning?, still in the red? or.......
Turning mildly positive actually.
Speaking as a fervent Remain campaigner I am trying hard to build bridges now. And there are good things that can come out of this, even though it is not the way I would have chosen and even though there is a lot of turmoil around.
I was heartened by the performance of the Commons yesterday. It had a sort of end-of-term feel about it, but it is clear that there is no appetite in Parliament for denying the referendum result and it is clear that there is going to be no immediate invocation of Article 50. It was on the whole a grown-up performance on all sides.
So, we are going to leave the EU. Or at least we are going to "leave" the "EU".
It's important I think to recognise that there are genuine arguments on the other side. I don't need to reiterate those from the Remain side as we can see the consequences all around us right now. For the Leave side, it is not so easily dismissed as the Remainers made out. First of all it had a *lot* of voters for whatever reason. Second, the centralising tendencies of the EU that go way beyond what is necessary for free trade - remember the Maastricht Treaty and Black Friday? The In/out Euro thing that bedevilled Blair's first term? The Constitution that Ireland had to vote on twice so they got it "right", that was also rejected in a few other countries and was anyhow shovelled in through the back door? The crises in Greece and Italy? All triggered by EU overreaching.
None of these reflected in the Leave campaign much, and it is sad that it has triggered so much racism - or in part been triggered by it. It is even sadder that to some extent everyone is seeking someone else to blame, be it Corbyn or Cameron or old people or young people - everybody but the Scots. We have somehow to deal with that.
The political turmoil we have in the UK has been long needed. Our political alignments are based on and ossified in the industrial relations of the immediate post-war era and it is about time they had a bloody big shake-up. There's going to be some serious thinking in other Euro countries as well.
I'm glad that we have not been kneejerked into invoking Art 50, I'm glad that Chancellor Merkel is being calm and playing the long game, I'm glad that Tak3n hung around this thread despite brickbats (and being from Boston does help understand his views). I'm glad I can still talk sensibly to my customers about what is going on - unless there are Remainers and Leavers in the shop at the same time, in which case I divert the conversation!).
And I'm getting more politically involved and I hope a lot of other people are too.
Mildly positive.
That's a lot better than the immediate shock and despair of, what, only four days ago.
