HAVING been in the town centre and witnessed the Brexit demonstration and counter-demonstration the other day, I’d like to thank many of the people involved.

No, really, I’d like to thank you, whether you’re in favour of Brexit or against it.

Listening to you and watching you as you discussed the issues was an education, and even though I’m well into middle age, I hope never to lose the joy I take in being educated.

Let me see whether I can list all the things I’ve learned. There were so many that I’ll have to do it carefully.

I learned that anybody who voted to stay in the EU, irrespective of why they did so, is automatically a disgusting collaborator and traitor who hates Britain and everything Britain has ever stood for,

I learned that anybody who voted to leave the EU, irrespective of why they did so, is automatically a fascist and racist who loathes and fears anybody from another land, or whose cultural values do not tally with their own.

I learned that the list of relevant attire when engaging in discourse over a matter involving Britain and Europe includes items proclaiming that we should make America great again, even though neither Britain nor Europe has had much a of a say in such matters since about...oh...1776 or so.

I learned that whatever one’s view on the whole issue of Brexit, a great way of winning your opponents, not to mention the public at large, over to your way of thinking, is to shout at your foes in finger-jabbing aggression, proclaim them to be idiots and chant slogans like the sheep in Animal Farm while passers-by look on in alarm, disgust or both.

I learned that whichever side you’re on, another great way of bringing people around to your way of thinking is to collectively create an atmosphere which leaves some of the more nervous casual observers wondering whether there will be violence in the near future.

I learned that if you support Brexit and are in the midst of a big row with some people who are against Brexit, there is nothing morally wrong in taking your big row to the Cenotaph, and carrying on in the very shadow of the memorial stone.

I learned that if you are against Brexit and are in the midst of a big row with some people who are for Brexit, there is nothing morally wrong in taking your big row to the Cenotaph, and carrying on in the very shadow of the memorial stone.

I learned that the sacrifice of those commemorated at the Cenotaph, a place which many people - such as those pictured above - regard as a form of hallowed ground, is of less significance than the right of certain people to trample all over it while shouting abuse at one another and generally behaving like a barbarous, disrespectful rabble.

I learned that if you’re not content with merely milling about and shouting at one another like a barbarous, disrespectful rabble during your time at the Cenotaph, you might also want to start a minor scuffle.

I learned that milling about like a barbarous, disrespectful rabble at the Cenotaph and starting a minor scuffle does not count as defiling the memorial in any way, shape or form. That, at least, is what horrified non-narcissists at the scene were told then they complained about the spectacle unfolding before them.

I learned many things that day, but having spoken to witnesses from both sides of the Brexit divide who were united in their revulsion at what they witnessed, I have learned that no matter our differences in politics or other ideologies, decent human beings have more in common than divides them.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart.