Milkman

A tangent

This tangent was originally published on Instagram.

So yes, keep the lid on, buy old books, read old books, seriously consider those scrolls and clay tablets.

The morning after the night of the Big Vote. The Big Vote everyone was talking about.

Also: the Big Vote no one wanted to talk about.

The morning after, Maybe Prime Minster came on the TV and said he couldn't be our Maybe Prime Minster anymore.

And then someone else came on the TV and said from now on, we're going to have to talk about the country over the water.

And that was a surprise to everyone on our side of the water, who thought the Big Vote was about Taking Back Control. Also, about leaving Europe and bendy bananas. Also, Brussels bureaucrats. Also, Polish plumbers, the NHS and a number on a bus.

But no, it turned out that the big problem was what to do with the border over the water.

It also turned out that in our country, on our side and their side of the water, there had been a Civil War.

Not the really old Civil War. With Oliver Cromwell and the Round Heads and King Charles losing his head.

No, this was a more recent Civil War. With car bombs, kangaroo courts and knee-cappings. Also, community justice. Also, community injustice.

It turned out that this Civil War was all about the border over the water, and the Peace was all about that border going away.

And now the Big Vote was going to bring the border back. And maybe bring the War back.

Which was all news on our side of the water, where we'd sort of forgotten there even was a country over the water.

A country that was this country. But not this country. Where the people were maybe British, maybe Irish. But also, definitely not British. Also, definitely not Irish.

You see, it was complicated. It was nuanced. It was ambiguous. It was like the colour of the sky. Which it turns out is not, as we used to think, blue.

But we didn't want to do complicated. We didn't want to do nuanced. And we definitely didn't want to do ambiguous.

Also, the sky had better be blue. Blue as our passports will be. Blue as the Queen's hat was.

No, it was going to be simple from now on. A border is a border. British is British.

And damn the consequences.