Day after stuff

The press is still full of it. The countdown to 11pm last night was very flat on all channels as I zapped back and forth. BBC and ITV seems to have relied on old scripts and old hands -- one speaker (Chair of Da Yoof for Remain And That) wanted to rerun the referendum debate. There was fleeting coverage of the rally in Parliament Square with tiny clips of Farage speaking -- but nothing substantive,because he is still an unspeakable bounder for all the meeja, even though his political grasp far exceeded theirs-- and interviews with him afterwards. E Maitlis tried to be nasty, just for old times sake. 

Perhaps the most enjoyable bit was C4's appalling The Last Leg (full on woke with disabled jokes, but made by disabled people so that's OK). A highly camp comedian,Tom Allen, was in Parliament Square to delight in his cultural superiority over the Leavers gathered there -- but had the tables turned nicely by several people who decided to out-camp and out de-micturate him, chat him up, flirt with him, invite him for drinks and so on. Gammon was thin on the ground so the whole set up was ruined.

Too much in the Graun to report, so snippets only: First up the invaluable J Freedland

The mixed emotions of Brexit day show the UK is not yet at ease with itself 

A YouGov poll, asking remain voters at which of the five stages of grief they now found themselves, registered only 30% who had reached acceptance of the fact of Britain’s departure from the EU: 19% are in denial, 16% are angry and 25% are depressed. (Alastair Campbell doubtless spoke for many when he said that part of him just wanted to retreat to his bed at 11pm, pulling the duvet over his head.)

In Frome, Somerset, [where else?]  they gathered for a late-night vigil at an installation known as the European Community of Stones, a semi-circular henge of 12 boulders, one quarried from each of the EU’s 12 members when it was built in 1992. They sang the EU anthem, Ode to Joy...That elegiac quality [!] has been a constant note sounded through these final days of UK membership, expressed most intensely in that widely shared footage of the European parliament rising to its feet to sing Auld Lang Syne to a departing Britain

The Royal Society of Literature posted an image from AA Milne: Winnie the Pooh and Piglet, hand in hand, walking into the sunset, above the caption, “But, of course, it isn’t really Good-bye, because the Forest will always be there… and anybody who is Friendly with Bears can find it.”

Amid the twee sentimentalism and naff home-made religious ceremonies, fantasy politics

Some remainers believe – and maybe even hope – that the shine will come off Brexit pretty soon. They point to new government advice warning citizens that, come next year, they could face roaming charges when they use their phones on the continent; that they’ll need health insurance or a special driving licence or a visa to work or study; that they’ll have to queue in the slower, non-EU lane at the airport. 

Those hammer blows will make us think again!   And it's not even the strawberry season yet.
 

There is this from J le Carré:

John le Carré on Brexit: ‘It’s breaking my heart’

This is a very misleading headline.  Mostly the copy is a very long piece, a transcript of a speech, on him receiving the Olof Palme Prize and trying to do the gracious thing and praise Palme. He does this for column inch after column inch. You have to wade through a lot until you come to the only bit the Grain is interested in:

I’m a European through and through, and the rats have taken over the ship, I want to tell him [Palme] . It’s breaking my heart and I want it to break yours. We need your voice to wake us from our sleepwalk, and save us from this wanton act of political and economic self-harm. 

The graun editorial:

We have lost. We’re out. Stark words and a bleak reality. Britain has now left the European Union. Our departure is a tragic national error, against which this newspaper has consistently argued.  

In every other sense, though, Britain is still part of Europe...The bonds of geography and history, of climate and culture, of industry and commerce, of travel and study, will remain. So must the vast fund of common human sentiment that transcends the differences of language and national borders remain in place.

I agree. So what exactly were the culture wars about then -- all that stuff about identity and  vulnerability, feeling abandoned, alone, under threat? 

Then an ingenious bit of spin:

The country will not plunge into the abyss, a fact that will be shamelessly misrepresented over the coming weeks by Brexit supporters [!]. 

And fantasy politics (to the tune of Somewhere Over the Rainbow) 

One day, perhaps, Britain will choose to rejoin such an EU. We will miss our membership dreadfully. We fear that Britain risks avoidable suffering for abandoning it. We hope to be back. But that day will not come soon. Anything else is a fantasy. Now as before, Brexit or not, this relationship needs to be based on facts and real connections, not on fantasies. The Guardian, at least, is not leaving Europe. We are a European news organisation. Europe is our back yard. It’s in our hearts and it’s in our DNA. 

 The now-universal appeal for funds at the end of that item has this

We won’t let Brexit come between us…

… and we hope you feel the same

Actually,no, I don't. I feel a bit sad at leaving the Guardian, even if it is not exactly breaking my heart.  I have got over denial and anger, but not disgust. I may mark my final break with a ceremony involving candles, recycling bins and a song. It will be unnecessary to separate from all the values in our vast shared fund, but I shall face the bleak reality. I may return one day to Guardina readership -- give it a decade or so and I might find it in the old people's home. Meanwhile, if you can spare a quid to help me run this blog, set my own agenda and voice my own opinions, I shall keep my blogging free from commercial and political bias and not influenced by billionaire owners or shareholders.