Joy (and sorrow) in London last night

The scene last night in front of the Palace of Westminster in Parliament Square. 

The event was organised by Nigel Farage and excited contempt and derision from Remain-supporting newspapers. The Independent sketch writer, who is paid to be funny, wrote

Parliament Square was a knuckle-dragging carnival of irredeemable stupidity

What makes Britain’s independence day different from those that have gone before it that its prize is a freedom nobody else wants

"I must report that on Friday 31 January, between the hours of 9pm and 11pm, Westminster’s Parliament Square played host to a static, knuckle dragging carnival of the irredeemably stupid."

And Tom Peck goes on, making no attempt to be amusing, with a long cry of anger and pain.

"We simply do not have more in common than that which divides us. It is an irreconcilable, fundamental rift that goes to the core of everything everyone on either side believes. There will be no moving on. For 10 years or more, all the nation’s fortunes will be tied back to this event.

"What happens, say, when another huge financial crisis hits, lives and livelihoods damaged? Half the country will blame the other half for the vast economic growth squandered to Brexit. We won’t move on. We can’t.

"The prime minister urges healing – but he is the disease, not the cure. What do we do next? Are we to accept defeat, make peace, all the while knowing that, were the shoe on the other foot, Farage and company would be doing absolutely nothing of the sort?"

The BBC also took it badly, though they tried to put a brave face on it.

BBC reporter to Brexiteers celebrating in Parliament Square: “It’s a very white crowd”.
When she reports at the Notting Hill Carnival, does she point out the “very black crowd” to the people she interviews too? pic.twitter.com/YleztCrLeq

— Julia Hartley-Brewer (@JuliaHB1) February 1, 2020

This children's TV programme was disgraceful and shocking, without being in the least surprising:

Glib, ignorant and unfunny - little wonder that with this type of empty cosmopolitan middle class take masquerading as the intelligent view the BBC is losing mass support. https://t.co/ZIKntvsA5X

— Phillip Blond (@Phillip_Blond) February 1, 2020

This, on the other hand, was flattering.

The Irish said no to the Lisbon Treaty. The French said no to the European constitution. The Greeks said no to austerity. The EU ignored them all.

The Brits said no to EU membership. And despite a 4 year concerted effort to ignore that too, we proved we're made of firmer stuff.

— DSG (@thedsggroup) January 31, 2020

And back to contempt, intellectual snobbery and class hatred:

If Brexiters don't like being called thick, maybe they should quit producing this kind of weapons grade idiocy.#BrexitCelebration pic.twitter.com/mkKJAHnIP9

— Matthew McGee ⴵ 🌍🇪🇺🇬🇧🎭🎞📚 (@McGeeMatthew) January 31, 2020

I was considered one of the clever ones in my year at Cambridge and I think that list intelligent, but there we are.

Leave voters were derided on Twitter and called "gammons", which apparently means stupid, middle-aged or older whites who support Brexit. If people derided ethnic minorities in the same contemptuous way the police would be round. 

The pithy Dan Hodges had the measure of the people who did this.

Remainers should carry on mocking the "thick" people who voted for Brexit. That will show them.

— (((Dan Hodges))) (@DPJHodges) February 1, 2020

Finally here is what could be a scene from an Ealing comedy. It also reminds me of the parable of the seven wise and seven foolish virgins. Whether the Remainers, standing with candles outside in the dark, are wise or foolish or virgins you can decide, gentle reader.

There’s a candlelight vigil taking place outside the EU embassy with counter protestors singing Jerusalem. pic.twitter.com/RnxfseEuUJ

— Guido Fawkes (@GuidoFawkes) January 31, 2020