Ashamed to be counted English

Astonishingly, almost unimaginably (to those of us working in education at any rate), the nation has voted to leave Europe.

Oh dear. Already I might be accused of inaccuracy: dealing with this whole issue of the referendum and its result we find ourselves walking on eggshells and playing with the niceties of language (what rich pickings there are for English teachers: examples of hyperbole, polemic, contradiction, mixed metaphors; I guess downright lies don’t count).

Britain overall voted for Brexit: the English and Welsh nations certainly voted Out; but Scotland and Northern Ireland didn’t do so by any stretch of the imagination.

For students of politics (not enough of them in our schools), there is also plenty of learning material in the whole saga. Most pundits agree that the Leave majority came as a result of large swathes of the electorate, especially those Labour supporters in disadvantaged areas, choosing to give Westminster a kicking. To Cameron and Corbyn alike they were saying, with Shakespeare’s Mercutio, “A plague on both your houses”.