We only blog once a week as a rule and don’t plan to change. However, yesterday generated a great deal of chat on the phone and in the pub. And since everyone is an expert we decided to add our thoughts to the mix. We promise not to go daily unless demand insists – take that sentence to confirm that our sense of humour hasn’t been damaged by the referendum. Before we broke for another well-earned lunch, four of us had been viewing jewellery at a local auction and with gold likely to soar in price, bling could be a safe haven. With advice like this maybe we should be running the country! On reflection, we’ve always believed we could do a better job than most of our politicians.

    Friday 24^th June – Who’d have thought it? Guess the main topic of conversation over lunch at The Boot in Shipton Bellinger today? (good food and lovely people by the way) We’re out and Dave is history. You could have got decent odds on that as a double with any bookmaker at ten o’clock last night. We tend to believe the bookies more than the pollsters and they’re not often wrong. But both them and The City were way out last night. So how did it come about? Well, the ‘metropolitan bubble’ finally burst, confirming how far out of touch London is with most of the people in the country. The map showing voting patterns in England could not have been more clear, London and its outskirts heavily in favour of ‘Remain’, while most of England sat firmly against. As messages to politicians go, it couldn’t be stronger.

    We’ve said for a while that this vote was about immigration. Not in a racist sense but purely about numbers. The numbers entering the country is too high. No government could plan to assimilate that many people. Our services are badly stretched right now and a continued flood will eventually break them. This is logic not racism. And then there was the strategy chosen by Dave and his remain team.

    Apocalyptic threats are never the best way to influence the British. Push them hard enough and they tend to fight. So Cameron and his merry men used the wrong levers in their attempts to win this battle. They wheeled out elite experts to lead the charge. These are people who have comfortable lives that would never feel ill effects from anything Brussels introduces, many earning a significant crust from their EU relationships. Most of the threatened had never heard of the majority of the experts who told them they would lose pensions, pay higher mortgages, damage the NHS. The reaction of the average person was predictable. They dug in their heels and raised two fingers, and not in the Churchill manner.

    The aim of the EU has long been a federation of European States. Nothing could be clearer. We can’t believe the UK would ever have joined that. So as closer union occurred we would inevitably have been outside looking in. We have now taken that position by choice. Now is the time for the negotiators. Cameron patently failed to achieve change while swearing he had. That will no longer be acceptable. Party politics should be shelved in order to pick the best team available. Their party colours are unimportant compared to their ability to do deals. Put the best of the best in play and accept that win-win deals are essential for Europe as well as the UK.

    Here endeth the lesson. Oldgits 108:1-76