Revenge of The Rightful Heir Disinherited

London: Despite the confident assertions of the usual battery of pundits, Britain is now out of the EU. Not quite, not for two years, but really it already feels like it is.

As it would; the entire campaign for Britain to leave the EU was so much more about the feel of a Britain standing in solitary splendour, hopefully, as in the grand old days. This new push to a future has arisen at its heart from memories of a grand past.

UKIP contested the elections last year on a campaign for Britain to quit the EU. The party drew four million or so votes, even if it did not win seats under the first-past-the-post system in India, a system that is dubiously followed in India too.

Those four million voted to 'Leave', for sure, and so did many more not bound by party issues. But just that four million or so could have brought the tilt that made all the difference. This was a vote by UKIP and the UKIP-like. The "real" Britain.

Who are these ‘real’ British? What has been the support base of UKIP? Face the facts, and never mind political correctness: this is Britain that is white, in appearance and values, it’s a Britain that spans the apparent divisions of the middle class, the working class and the elite.

The binding glue is the attraction of isolation, and the belief that Britain can still stand great alone, away from dilution and dissolution through an uneasy union with Europe. That is the glue certainly that this ‘real’ Britain speaks of with some pride.

That is a layered distrust of foreigners, a resistance to decisions taken for Britain by the European Union or anyone else and at the core of this an attitude that arises from, let us say, perceptions of race issues, if not outright racism.

Too long now this core of Britain has seen itself as the rightful heir disinherited. This was the once in a lifetime chance to reclaim Britain back for their real selves, and they took it.

Never mind the upheaval in the markets and the currencies, this will pass. Perhaps currencies, market indices and share values will find another, lower level, and stay there. But potential damage could be more serious, and even long-term.

The first warnings of that came early from up north in Scotland. First minister Nichol Sturgeon warned that Scotland will have to look after its interests – a loaded warning. Scotland voted in a referendum to stay on as a part of Britain, of a Britain that was a part of the EU.

Scotland voted overwhelmingly to remain, and now it stands thrown out of the EU because England wanted it that way. Not a situation that Scots will want to live with for long.

They will bargain hard for more promising deals with Britain – or skip Britain and connect down south with the EU after another referendum that is certain to take them away from Britain.

The British decision to leave can have consequences for the EU itself. The far right in France is waiting to move in. Anti-EU parties are gaining ground in Italy as never before.

Rumblings have risen in Germany against money flowing to Greece and over yet more migration. The big fear that EU governments will now be fighting is that the EU might itself begin to unravel.