If you can read this thank a teacher

We are delighted to see our dear German friends, Nonie and Torsten.  They arrive in an aged BMW, fulfilling every preconceived idea about Germans loving quality cars that last forever.  We settle them in with rosé and catching up.  After a while I hesitate to ask the question but the right time never comes.  Finally I blurt it out:

"How did you feel on 24th June?".  The atmosphere immediately freezes and there is a pregnant pause.

Nonie was in tears.  She went to work on autopilot that morning to the tearful hugs of commiserating  staff room colleagues.  Torsten looks thunderous as Nonie proceeds to tell us about her classic stages of grief.  The last phase is anger and it is clear that this is still the major emotion.  They both feel utterly betrayed by a campaign that allowed so many lies to go unchallenged.  Yes, they agree that Cameron was incompetent and slothful and that complacency led to this outcome.

They avoid eye contact while they tell us what they really feel about living in the UK.  After 20 years teaching in state schools and approaching retirement they feel betrayed and are now planning to retire in Germany.  Devaluation of sterling will impoverish their pensions.  Living in Germany may devalue them further but staying in the UK is unthinkable.  Why should they stay, they argue, in a country in which they feel unwelcome, despite their years of service in secondary education?  I quip that an Irish acquaintance was able to vote but this merely enrages them - they had no vote. Mentioning the disenfranchisement of long-standing expats seems superfluous at this point.

I put it to them that the referendum was purely advisory, that the campaign was based on lies and that Parliament must be made to vote to trigger Article 50.  No, they say.  "You have voted, now you must go and go quickly" they retort, echoing the words of Frau Merkel and Herr Hollande.  Nonie and Torsten are reasonable, intelligent people and if they are thinking in this punitive way, then what are Europe's leaders thinking?  Will the UK be shown the door?  Is there a clause for this?  Will Merkel and Hollande tolerate the delays?  How the UK economy will cope with years of uncertainty remains to be seen.  How will we be able to recruit the native speakers we so desperately need to teach modern foreign languages? We are now seen as a nation intended on doing monumental self-harm - a quick look at European headlines is illuminating.   The post resignation humming of Cameron added some humour the very dark days after the referendum but left the reputation of British politics in tatters.  It is clear that the UK is to be punished for its folly and European capitals will gain from our loss.   And Germany will gain Nonie and Torsten.