“Keep calm but remain outraged”, said one sign on the London protest march against Brexit. There was no shortage of witty and pungent sayings (read on for our top picks), but this one in particular epitomises Britons’ stance when faced with adversity.
The original version – “Keep calm and carry on” – has prompted thousands of variations (including the one below, a gift from Jules to help keep my composure while suffering on an indoor bicycle), but was never actually used. In 1939 close to 2.5 million posters with the original motto were made to boost the population’s morale ahead of the impeding Blitz, but only a handful were ever distributed. The saying quickly plunged into oblivion till the year 2000, when it was rediscovered in a second-hand bookshop.
Apparently pre-World War II Briton’s didn’t need any extra motivation to keep their composure, and neither do their great-grandchildren. The organisers of the Brexit protest politely postponed the march after public authorities warned they couldn’t guarantee the safety of the overwhelming number of attendees that vowed to participate.
Safety first, of course. After ensuring that everything was neat and proper, the protest went ahead. Luck would have it that both Jules and I were there to witness it: Jules was working for a few weeks in London, and I came from somewhere to spend the weekend with her.
After feeding the obese squirrels at St. James’ Park, we crossed paths with the protesters at Trafalgar’s Square on a bright sunny Saturday morning. The protest was unlike any other I have seen: calm, orderly, peaceful. Some would call it dispassionate, but for me it seemed like a particularly effective way of conveying a message.
And what a message it was! Instead of signs with dusty old clichés, marchers come up with a brilliant array of maxims. Choosing our top picks was no easy feat:
- “Keep calm but remain outraged” – A classic
- “Briton, European, Human” – Three uncomplicated words written on a simple piece of cardboard, carried by a smiling girl with the EU flag painted across her face
- “Never gonna give EU up, never gonna let EU down” – This was our favourite musically-inspired adage
- “BREXshIT” – See what they did there?
- “Brie-entry” – No shortage of witty word games
- “Fromage, not Farage” – French culinary was a popular topic. We also saw a protester holding a croissant and a loaf of bread
- “Farage licks goats” – Not sure what that means exactly, but it’s definately not a pleasantry towards Mr. Farage
- “Pulling out never works” – EU policy and birth control advice, all on the same sign
- “If negotiating access to the single market without accepting freedom of movement was easy, it would be your mum” – self-explanatory, really
Perhaps nowhere in the world were people so shocked with the results of the Brexit referendum as in London: less than 40% of Londoners voted to leave the EU, compared with 52% of the country overall. For a city where more than 35% of its residents were born outside of the UK and that today stands as the financial capital of Europe, leaving the EU is indeed – to put it as a polite British euphemism – a tad disappointing.
I’ll leave you with some of our mementos from London, likely our last ones from an EUnited Kingdom (see what I did there?).
Verne*
You’ve got some lovely London photos here – the reflection in the puddle is great!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you! I usually carry my camera on rainy days, in hopes that I run into a puddle nicely positioned 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
You’ve nailed the low key nature of British outrage. Good job!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thank you for reading! That protest was indeed a fine example that “it’s about what you say and not how loud you say it”.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Pois… gostei de ver esta colorida ilustração da fleuma britânica, imaginativa e cheia de humor! Os nossos taxistas é que têm de ir até Londres ver como as pessoas se podem manifestar, sem deixarem de passar a mensagem e sem encalharem no Big Ben, versão inglesa da Rotunda do Relógio… 🙂
Um belo apontamento de um acontecimento da actualidade… que nos remete para outro mais antigo, o Blitz! Muito interessante.
E também gostei de ver as fotos dos monumentos e dos parques – com especial destaque para o esquilo gorducho… Parabéns! Keep calm and go on writing for us! 🙂
LikeLike
Espectacular tradução, digna de um Eça de Queiroz! Daqui até passares a traduzir estes posts é um passinho 🙂
LikeLike
LOL never heard about that birth control thing. By the way. I wonder what will happen to the Union without the Brits.. Something like a ‘EU Nighted Kingdom’? 🙂
LikeLike
That’s brilliant! I don’t think we saw a sign with that one 🙂
LikeLike
A good read and some great pictures. It’s nice to see some good pictures of ‘home’ If I was there I may have joined them. I do like 2Farage licks goats” . . . It’s true apaprently
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thanks Scott! I assumed the saying had some figurative meaning, it didn’t cross my mind that Farage literally licks goats 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Haha. Yeah I think it’s Monty Python humour. It wouldn’t surprise me seeing as David Cameron had supposedly errr put his ‘private parts’ in the mouth of a pig’s head . . . something which is believable in context
LikeLiked by 2 people
Gotta love Brit humour (hey, I’ll even use U.K. spelling) 🙂
LikeLiked by 2 people
As a British person living in Europe, I loved this post. You definitely captured the mood surrounding Brexit. And yes, I am still outraged.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thank you Hayley! And great views and photographs of the Austrian countryside, by the way. I too share your pain of trying to learn German in a dialect-speaking region (Switzerland). I failed miserably.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh heavens–yes! THAT is what a protest should be like. At least people are clear about what they want and can disagree civilly. I can’t quite get what the goal is of the post-election anti-Trump protests here. And when I think protest, what you described has always been what I’ve thought of as a real honest to goodness protest. My inner Pollyanna is cheering about the possibilities. If only…
Lovely pics, too–makes me want to go there. London’s definitely on my bucket list.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Exactly! No argument was ever improved by shouting it. Kudos on the “Chatty Introvert” name, love it! I’m the latter, working on the former.
LikeLike
With you all the way. I have posted a few on Brexit, before and after. Can’t quite get over it yet.
(Thank you and Welcome to the Followship of the Equinox)
LikeLiked by 1 person
Have been back to London a couple of times after the referendum. The city’s mood has definately changed, and not for the better. Love your blog, by the way! 🙂
LikeLike
Saw your last reply – that’s too bad -am not up on the changes after the Brexit day, but I was happy for the UK’s middle class. If you care to comment on what’s going on now (Dec. 7), go ahead… thanks for coming by my blog!
LikeLiked by 1 person
My pleasure, it’s a great blog! Whenever I’m in London I spend a lot of time with two groups that got a raw deal with Brexit: immigrants and those employed by multinational companies that have threatned to rellocate. Would be interesting to visit the rest of the UK to see how other people are dealing with Brexit, but London’s mood is definately grim!
LikeLike
We are still reeling from the result all over the country. I am still baffled that so many of my fellow countrymen and women swallowed the blatantly misleading political nonsense and the ugly tabloid campaigns. The rise in hate crimes is shameful, the uncertain status of many people working here is bad for all of us, we will all be poorer and not just financially. Most damaging of all, I suspect the Brexit result gave the Trump campaign a substantial leg-up. I’m glad you saw the best of our nation!
LikeLiked by 3 people
Indeed I did (and do), Hilary! My relationship with your nation is almost as old as the 13th century England-Portugal alliance: I started by learning English (well, ‘American’) as a young kid, started to appreciate British humor (alright alright: ‘humour’) as a teenager, and nowadays I often go to London on work.
LikeLike
You might enjoy ‘Glass’ by Jenifer Roberts. This non-fiction story of a Portuguese/British merchant enterprise between 1730s and the 1890s made me really interested in the relationship between Portugal and Britain.
LikeLike
Thank you, I’ve added it to my Goodreads list!
LikeLike
This is a great post and really captures the spirit of Britain with regard to the keep calm and carry on. I was one of those people who voted for Brexit. Where I live in Southampton (which is very proud of its multi-racial and diverse population) we have people from all over the globe here. Many would like to see trade throughout the world not just in the EU. Our County has really suffered under EU rules – factories closing, fishing rights slashed, small businesses struggling with taxes while huge corporations paid none. I have never seen so many homeless people from our own hometown, of all ages – young girls and elderly men sleeping rough on the streets. For our City it was to do with how Globalisation was being implemented leaving too big a divide between the rich and the poor.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you for getting in touch, it’s great to have a broad range of opinions here. I regret not knowing more of the UK: I was probably there dozens of times bur very rarely did I get out of London!
LikeLiked by 1 person
London is a fantastic place and am so glad you enjoyed it – but its almost like a country of its own – like just seeing New York, New York and not knowing what else there is in America. If there is ever another time perhaps you could fly to Edinburgh or Glasgow in Scotland, travel down to Liverpool and get the ferry to Ireland. From Ireland you could fly to Cardiff or Bournemouth and visit the South West before heading back from Heathrow. TrypAdvisor always gives plenty of advice.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s a fantastic idea! How much time would you recommend for such a route?
LikeLiked by 1 person
10 days to two weeks but it depends how much time you have – if you have longer you could fly to France etc. But avoid British school holidays – Avoid Easter and 29th May to 2nd June or August or you’ll spend most of your time in traffic in 2017. Best is between May 5th – 28th and June 7th to the middle of July or September are good times.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Perfect, thank you!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ask again if you need to know anything else, but I recommend that you search topics under the TrypAdvisor UK Forum.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I loved this post. The British humor and the photos captured the moment so well. I lived in London back in the day when they were just going in to the EU. I was shocked at the result and would have voted to stay if I still lived there. We shall have to see how it all plays out. That could be said about a few things ( I am writing this just before the inauguration of the new US President). Thanks for the photos and the humor.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thank you for reading Anne, glad you enjoyed it! In any case, we still have Canada. A student of physics myself, I was hooked when I heard Justin Trudeau explaining quantum computing to a journalist 🙂 – Verne
LikeLiked by 2 people
Yes! I saw that. I had no idea he had that knowledge. He does have a background as a teacher. I like him and I feel he is an intelligent man with some sense of social justice. And he has great hair. Sorry just had to add that.
LikeLiked by 2 people
An excellent post. What a shame this hopeful spirit of protest is being crushed . Am a Brit in France who doesn’t know if I can stay here in France and don’t want to go ” home” to a country I am ashamed of.
LikeLike
Thank you for reading, Cathy. Hey, if two World Wars didn’t break that spirit, it’s not going to be Brexit that does 🙂 -Verne
LikeLiked by 1 person
I very much hope you are right. Thanks for following my blog. My next garden post is Brazil.🍉🌞
LikeLiked by 1 person
Nice, looking forward to reading it and enjoying the pictures! 🙂 -Verne
LikeLike
You will be disappointed by the pictures as they are iPad retakes of the original printed versions !!😏
LikeLiked by 1 person
We took all our round-the-world trip photos with a smartphone, I have a lot of respect for the photographic capabilities of phones and tablets, even when retaking printed shots 🙂 -Verne
LikeLiked by 1 person