The whole thing has been a collossal waste of time. Cameron thought he was being clever shoring up Tory support by calling a referendum he thought he would win, but was too entitled and stupid to factor in the heady mix of the xenophobia that his party and their media friends had stoked, along with the anger of communities left behind by 30 years of neoliberalism and what was then 6 grinding years of austerity.

I voted Remain and would do so again if it came to it, but to me Brexit is just a sideshow, and the constant media frenzy around it is a tale, told by an idot, full of storm and fury, signifying nothing (sorry for the Hamlet). For whole swathes of the population the worst is already happening. Austerity has caused tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of deaths and it’s nowhere near over. I work in local government and the 50% cuts to local authority funding haven’t even begun to properly bite. At the same time we have insitutionalised border violence, with privately run prison camps for migrants, and people who’ve lived pretty much their entire lives in the UK being rounded up and flown off to countries they’ve often never seen before. We live in a society where the poorest and most vulnerable inhabitants are constantly demonised and victimised.

The politicians of the right and centre learnt nothing from the crash a decade ago, and their only solutions have involved a huge wealth transfer from the poorest in society to the richest through ideology-fuelled austerity and tax cuts. Brexit is likely to make things even worse, but it is first and foremost a symptom of an even more serious disease, for which treatment needs to be prioritised.

As to the future, Brexit or no Brexit, if the country is left in the hands of the Conservatives, all of the above is going to get worse. In either case, the Tories will never reverse Brexit, as the vast majority of their supporters voted for it, and any deal they reach, if at all, is sure to be abysmal for anyone who isn’t well off. At the same time, the Labour Party, despite what the media and the underwhelming Remain campaign groups seem to think, isn’t in a position to stop Brexit, or even secure a better deal, while in opposition.

Short answer, without a change of government, we’re fucked.