Well I am devastated. Sickened in fact; horrified and disappointed and shocked. And that’s not the half of it.  It is indeed Brexit Plus Plus Plus as That Man promised it would be. I can’t face reading the papers. The radio and TV are off unless there is a non-news programme to watch-which means we keep missing the weather forecast. Fortunately the weather is being kind to us and the sunny dry days mean we can keep escaping on our bikes and forget about this awful unbelievable awful event for a while longer.

I didn’t think it could happen in America. I was shocked and shaken by the vote to Leave the European Union but put it down to social conditions peculiar to Britain and our ever widening inequalities.

Now I feel we are in the throes of a major disturbance, politically and socially: a seismic social change seems to be taking place around us. People seem to be digging their heels in, saying ‘I’ve had enough’, ‘I won’t be pushed around any longer’. And, if that’s true, I support that sentiment.

What I can’t accept though is that it comes alongside such hatred and abuse – of women, of blacks, of Muslims. And maybe too of all of us who have enjoyed so much privilege for so long.

Yet, at the same time, I have also been longing for revolution, for so long. I couldn’t understand why no one was rioting in the streets as this narrative of austerity as the only way to handle the Crash was perpetrated and accepted. That workers had to bear the brunt through wage caps while we bailed out and supported the banks. While welfare claimants and the sick and disabled were vilified for needing our financial support. While immigrants were blamed for ‘over-burdening’ our NHS when the real villain was the cap on its resourcing.  Britain is better than this. And so is America.  I thought.

But in trying to understand and come to terms with this outcome, I hit a huge stumbling block.  I am furious. I am revolted to the core.  I can’t look at a picture of That Man without retching yet.  All the while I am trying to find compassion and understanding and acceptance.  Digging deep to try to ‘Be the change I want to see’, to find and to show the grace that Hilary Clinton and Michelle Obama give seemingly so effortlessly.  I will keep digging. There really is no other way through. It sure ain’t easy…