EU referendum, brexit and the aftermath

Politicians love that... all about the divide 'n conquer shit innit.

I think you may be right. I think that the only predictions that I can confidently make right now are (i) we will have to compromise (for trade deals etc.) relative to the "all the benefit and none of the cost" vision that Brexit was sold on and (ii) people that voted for Brexit (and the press that pushed it) will be largely unable to own those compromises as inevitable failures of Brexit

It's going to be very difficult to bite one's tongue when people are complaining about problems that lots of people saw coming a mile off.

More worryingly, on Brexit day Liam Fox said something that basically confirmed what a perceptive friend of mine noted before the referendum, namely that the Brexit camp is irreconcilably divided between globalisers and protectionists. Fox, clearly in the globalising camp (as are all the Brexiteers with any actual power), said something to the effect of "a lot of people who voted for Brexit are going to be disappointed." Other than being an admission that the whole thing is a fucking sham and that we're now on a path to a UK that is actually wanted by a very small minority of the population, it's very worrying because it suggests that there will be a huge number of disgruntled people out there who will continue to blame the EU, foreigners and immigrants for a few years, before someone charismatic and fashy steps forward and actually shows them that they were sold a pup by their own government (and of course he will make Britain great again if they only vote for him).

I can't see a route to any sort of reconciliation tbh, Brexit has pushed us down the US culture war hole and I don't think we're going to come back out anytime soon.

Said to say I think you're probably correct