G.K. CHESTERETON

...We hear men speaking for us of new laws strong and sweet,
Yet is there no man speaketh as we speak in the street.
It may be we shall rise the last as Frenchmen rose the first,
Our wrath come after Russia’s wrath and our wrath be the worst.
It may be we are meant to mark with our riot and our rest
God’s scorn for all men governing. It may be beer is best.
But we are the people of England; and we have not spoken yet.
Smile at us, pay us, pass us. But do not quite forget.
(The Secret People)

And that, in a nutshell is what happened.  Forgotten, the people of England, pretty much understood that the European Union was a bollocks, but not so awful that they would go out of their way to do anything about it.  But given the opportunity...

The result was a colossal failure on the part of David Cameron to understand his countrymen simply because he never listened or like his counterparts Over Here listened only to those in London and Edinburgh (New York and San Francisco?)  and no one in the middle.  I stayed up until the wee hours to watch it and the highlight was certainly the venerable David Dinglebee on the Beeb.  Pompous, self-assured, all-knowing and constantly dismissive of lesser mortals, the change in him as the evening progressed as the realization that he was about to be proven stupendously, utterly wrong was as warming a sight for these old eyes as are my grandchildren.  England had spoken (and it was England) and yet to David it seemed to be in a language unknown to him.  Of course he was not alone in that as witnessed by the slaughter in the financial markets where everyone was long Remain.

The DOW was down 600.  The 10 year yield crashed to 1.51%, but it was Sterling that was truly slaughtered...down 11% against the dollar in the worst one day in history.  Time to panic, right?  Not really, sez I.  The long positions in everything and the panic repositioning caused these results.  Is it going to turn right around?  No, but I doubt that we will see a continuation of this slaughter on Monday.That is because though everything  has changed, really nothing has changed and will  not for a considerable period of time.  But--and this is a big BUT--the rose-colored glasses are off and the myriad of difficulties facing the global economy will be now put into sharp focus by an event deemed so unlikely that its occurance will not doubt call into question the true understanding claimed by our resident geniuses and their academic world as opposed to what my sons refer to as "Realville."  Their false confidence should have been shaken.  Not a bad thing I think.

The Future?  Heck, I don't know but I think I'll devote next week to some scenarios that I believe could become part of that "Realville" in which we are now entering.  Admittedly, for some it will be The Twilight Zone but some will never learn.  It's funny, but while watching this unfold, it was not only Chesterton that came to mind but our own Carl Sandburg:   "The People...YES!"  There are those who tell us that the people should never be allowed to express their opinion directly but only through their elected representatives.  I disagree.  There are some issues of such great import that MUST be dealt with in the manner of yesterday's event.  Politicians should remember: Do not quite forget.  It will make them better politicians.