Watching the English (Kate Fox 2004) and Brexit

Robin Ford, June 2016

We English value modesty, she wrote,
And courtesy, and (most of all) fair play.
A diagram then showed — I roughly quote —
“How we respond and why we act that way.”
If there’s excess, respond with moderation.
“Social dis-ease” invokes a jolly jest.
When conflict’s foiled by courteous conversation
It sometimes seems hypocrisy, at best.
Like Eeyore, we expect grand schemes to fizzle.
(Perhaps the weather’s why this comes to pass.)
Empiric’ly we look out, through the mizzle,
Upon a culture unified by class.
An island people, reticent yet proud.
A referendum: secret thoughts out loud.