We are still a very divided nation. Brexit has revealed a great fracture between leavers and remainers which in many ways is getting worse not better. A relative reacted to a post on her Facebook timeline from a group called "I voted leave" which attacked Gina Miller, the lady behind the Article 50 case, for costing £1.5 million of taxpayers money in government legal fees over the case. The vitriol unleashed on her was absolutely sickening. I shudder to think what she has gone through.
I couldn't help pointing out that it was the government that chose to fight the article 50 case when they could have just accepted that parliament needed to vote it through, in which case the legal cost would have been zero. Instead they went to the High Court and then the Supreme Court before doing what they should have done at the beginning. As we know, parliament passed the bill with a huge majority so it was hard to see the government resisted it for so long at such a cost.
Another posting on our Facebook group was from someone who had exchanged comments with a leave voter on a pro Brexit group about immigrants apparently bring allocated 80,000 social houses in Bristol. The leaver was outraged. But it was pointed out that Bristol only has 27,000 social houses altogether!
These divisions are going to last for years and years. Remainers like me will not give up. The economic facts are on our side. More data from the second quarter is out this week and expected to show a further slowing down. Sooner or later, soft leavers, those at the margin with no really strong opinion and others who based their vote on the promises and lies of the leave campaigns, will begin to face reality.
The Conservative party find themselves in a terrible dilemma. Go through with Brexit and cause untold and perhaps permanent damage to the economy, losing their reputation for economic competence as well as millions of voters. Or stop Brexit altogether and face a backlash that we can barely imagine with similar consequences for their future electoral fortunes. They only have themselves to blame and they must bear a heavy responsibility. The anger will be terrible.
