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@Bad_Science
Very interesting day at work. Lots of long faces from the Remain crowd, although the Labour ones have another level of chaos to deal with on top. Lots of confusion from the Brexiteers as well, one of them (very senior) told me he had spent the weekend trying to get answers, and "If you hear anyone today claiming to know what's going on, they are lying."
Statement from PM, repeated in upper chamber, calmed things down a bit, but the debate that followed was described as "For our end of the building, pretty scratchy."
The mood is beginning to settle though. Brexiteers seem to have realised they now have to deliver on their promises or lose face for ever, so aren't crowing, and seem genuinely interested in massive cross-party involvement for the negotiation. I even heard someone say that because the leadership of the government and opposition in the commons was so flaky, it might be a good idea to form a temporary unified cabinet. It will never happen, but it was interesting that it was even suggested.
Obviously, this is not the first time that anyone in the House of Lords has lost a vote, nor will it be the last, so the Remainers will bounce back. Some of them had already told me that the result would go against them, so I think that, in a way, many were better prepared for the result than the winning side.
The upper house is fairly strongly europhile, so the result of the referendum isn't exactly popular. However, the attitude seems to be swinging towards "Ok, well, we may not like it, but the people have decided, and we will be out. It is now our job to make sure that those people doing the negotiations don't fuck it up, to hold them to account at every stage, and to keep reminding them that they will never be forgiven if we come away from this with anything less than the best deal possible in the circumstances."
Labour seems to be coming apart like a clown car down in the commons, Corbyn seems very unpopular, but may hang on by the skin of his teeth with the support of the unions.