London: 'Independence day' in the UK, exactly a year since Britain voted to leave the European Union, has been greeted with bitter howls and smug celebration, showing the wounds left by the Brexit referendum are still raw.
A year ago on Friday, the country divided itself almost down the middle, pitting old against young, city against country and the well-educated versus the less-educated. Narrowly, but not so narrowly as to be contestable, Britain voted Leave.
On Friday, former UKIP leader Nigel Farage posted on Twitter a photo of himself ecstatically celebrating on referendum night.
Conservative Brexiteer Daniel Hannan recalled in The Sun newspaper the "beautiful orange sunrise" after the result became clear, then got stuck into so-called 'Remoaners' for their reaction to the vote, arguing that claims of a post-referendum rise in hate crimes was a media myth.
Many Brexiteers chose to highlight predictions of short-term economic downturn following the vote, which did not come to pass (economists still stick to their predictions of long-term economic damage from Brexit).
The Leave.EU group that campaigned for Brexit planned a party for Friday evening.
UKIP member of the European parliament Patrick O'Flynn wished the UK a happy Independence Day, but also warned "attempts continue to subvert our vote to become a proper nation again. We will not let them succeed".
And Breitbart London's editor Raheem Kassam took time out from his favoured pastime of goading liberals to post a photo of his hero Farage, along with the comment "Happy Independence Day. Can we be independent yet?"
But not everyone was celebrating.
Liberal Democrat MEP Catherine Bearder had this to say:
Former Labour spin chief Alastair Campbell agreed.
Prominent academic A C Grayling was partially optimistic:
And barrister Jo Maugham QC complained that "Brexit has (1) made the UK a worse place to live (2) choked economic growth (3) reduced our incomes (4) made all of us poorer."
He cited four charts published in the Financial Times showing a big fall in the last year in GDP growth, a plummeting pound and a drop in real wages, as earnings growth failed to keep pace with inflation.
FT political editor George Parker pointed out that the news on 'Independence Day' included stories on City jobs moving to Frankfurt, a fruit picking migrant shortage, and the EU refusing to back the UK in an Indian Ocean dispute.
Former UKIP MP Douglas Carswell said Parker's comment was proof "some are still not reconciled to the result".
Polls show that most Britons are now reconciled to the result – though there may have been a recent wobble.
An analysis of public opinion, published this week by the UK in a Changing Europe and Political Studies Association group of academics, found the public is still almost equally divided on whether leaving or staying is a good idea – very few people have changed their minds about the way they voted a year ago.
However a good proportion of those who think it's a bad idea nevertheless agree the result of the referendum should be respected.
Political expert professor John Curtice said there has been a very slight shift recently away from favouring Brexit.
A Survation poll published last weekend showed that, for the first time, there were more people in favour than not of a second referendum on the final Brexit deal.
And if the 2016 vote was repeated, 51 per cent said they would now vote Remain, against 49 per cent for Leave, excluding those who didn't know.
But other polls show that Leave would still win a referendum rerun.
Meanwhile, amid all the banter on social media there was a calm, automated vote of sanity.
The Twitter account 'Have We Left the EU?' posted the same message it has every single day since last August.
The Age
