I was over in the cafe yesterday, drinking my usual cappuccino and double espresso combination and trying to write. No ideas were coming, so, gregarious chap that I am, I thought I would lean over and ask the elderly couple on the table next to me for suggestions. They smiled, thought for a moment, and suggested the weather. The wind was picking up and a storm was clearly brewing, so it was quite a good idea.

I got to work, and trotted out four or five lines about how a storm had been building since summer, and about how we were now powerless to defend ourselves against it. The allusion was frankly obvious. I showed it to the guy, who smiled; I suspect he was surprised that I was aware of such matters. I asked him if he got my metaphor, and he said yes. But then he asked if he could add something. I said ‘okay’, and the guy tapped in a sentence about the storm soon passing.

I didn’t like that one bit. We obviously did not see things in the same way. To be honest, I got a little tetchy – I had an outist on my hands. He added that he thought this could be our renaissance, a sentiment which struck me as utterly naive and quite, quite delusional. Not wanting to let things go too far, though, I quickly called an end to the game; I could feel myself getting rather uppity and argumentative. After all, they were just an elderly couple who wanted to enjoy a quiet cup of coffee. Yet I think this exemplifies the situation we all now find ourselves in: the referendum has divided us all into one category or another. It is on most of our minds, but we either agree or bitterly disagree about it; and if you try to chat with someone about it, you never know which camp they fall into. It’s as if the country has been torn in two, with one side angry at the other. It’s not just me – I’ve heard many others make similar observations. Frankly, I find it a very worrying state of affairs.