Words from the Blue Corner

I have tried to stay out of most Brexit discussions since the wedding and Africa,because it all depresses me so much, but one chum brought it up at the weekend. He isn't a dyed-in-the-wool tory but I think he votes that way fairly constantly. His words stayed with me:

'I don't think I have ever known a time when we have been on the wrong side of history. But I think we are now. There are aggressive forces in this world, and this time... I think we've strengthened them. We have chosen the wrong road.' He spoke of a racist woman in his place of work. 'I don't think Brexit created anything that wasn't there. But it's made them bolder. They think they can say these things, that we support them really.'

I was impressed because he was the first - I think my only- right-ish wing friend to have expressed the results of the referendum in moral terms. Many have tried to dismiss the racist attacks as an unfortunate side issue, perhaps overplayed by the media, and many have said, ' This is not what I voted for. It is another issue.'

But he said what is in my heart on this matter. Brexit was about what we chose to strengthen and what we chose to weaken. All that may be good is uncertain. But the bad, the cruel, the ones who only needed the nod to hate, they're very happy.

This cannot bode well.