SO we are now “through the looking glass” and it’s a very different world this weekend.
As we know, England and Wales have effectively declared independence from the rest of Europe, while Scotland and Northern Ireland opted to remain.
It’s a step into the unknown and the ramifications will be felt for generations.
This divorce from the EU could take some time and will undoubtedly be painful.
Scotland will be dragged away by England like a little kid being forced to leave a party where all their pals are happily playing together.
It now looks as though we will inevitably be heading for yet another Scottish referendum, although canny politician Nicola Sturgeon will surely pick her time carefully as she won’t want to “do a Cameron” and end up losing and having to resign.
On Friday morning, after we knew that the Brexit supporters had won the day, I met a Polish family who were deeply concerned about their future.
Ten years ago, Sylwia and Maciek Knaak and their baby daughter Agatha moved to Scotland and set up their own business.
They’ve worked long, hard hours to make their small coffee shop in Glasgow a big success.
Along with around 100,000 other people from the EU who have made their lives in Scotland, they weren’t allowed to vote in the EU referendum, despite being taxpayers.
The family are now fearful of the future.
They import a lot of their ingredients from the EU and are worried about possible tariffs and rising costs which they would have to pass on to their customers.
They are also scared about whether or not they will actually still be allowed to stay here, while little Agatha is worried because this is the only home she has
ever known.
All of the EU residents have been assured by the Scottish Government that they are more than welcome to stay and are vital to the economy, but families like the Knaaks will still have sleepless nights.
It’s unsettling and worrying for everyone and a lot of people who voted to leave are probably wondering what they have actually let themselves in for.
And what of our children?
Looking at the voting patterns, it’s clear that young voters overwhelmingly opted to remain in the EU.
By and large, teenagers and 20-somethings are far more forward-looking and they want the freedom to work, live and travel in Europe with ease.
They’ve been robbed of that because older voters, mainly in England, were whipped up by hysteria over immigration in a bad-tempered and toxic campaign south of the Border.
Everything has been thrown up in the air and it’s all extremely messy to say the least.
We’ve had the Tory party tearing itself apart, an ineffectual Jeremy Corbyn who seemed to be clueless of the opinions of traditional grassroots Labour voters and, together with David Cameron, he must take a lot of the blame for not convincing enough people to vote to stay.
Who knows what lies around the corner for all of us?
Of course the sun will still rise in the morning and we will all try and get on with our lives. It might just be that little bit harder.
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