Twenty four hours in London, and it’s rather surreal; On the surface, it seems nothing’s changed since my last visit a month ago, yet so much has, I can sense the shock and disbelief that it’s come to pass and the realities and (some regrets) are starting to sink in �" what happens now after Brexit? 

Forty years of integration to be pulled apart on a roll of a dice, on a binary question, yes or no. It’s bigger than anyone can imagine, least of all by the leaders of the Leave campaign as it’s turning out.

The implications are everywhere.

Sitting on the British Airways flight to London and I wonder, what will happen to this most British of institutions? How will air rights be renegotiated? What will happen to its access to Europe, of which it is the dominant carrier and its home airport, the undisputed gateway? Arriving at Heathrow and going through immigration �" there’s the EU lane and the non-EU lane. What will happen here?

My Blacklane driver is from Pakistan. He came here 12 years ago in search of a better life. He voted Leave because his friends told him it was all about immigration. He said, “I regret it.” I asked him why he would vote against immigration when he himself is an immigrant.

“I am worried about my kids’ future, I don’t want them to have to fight for jobs,” he said. “Now I am worried there will be no jobs.”

He shakes his head. “We’ll see.”

A couple of my friends, white, educated, pretty well-off, in their 50s, voted Leave because they wanted to protest. “I never thought it would happen,” said one. The other said, “I feel good at having taken a bit of democracy back but distinctly nervous about the immediate economic future!”

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