17-05-2025
Are we finally getting over Brexit? It feels like it up here
Walking around the scabrous postwar blight of Thorntree, in Middlesbrough, the immense benefits of leaving the European Union are not immediately apparent. Boarded-up houses, some smoke-damaged, a scabby patch of grass for the kids to play and the dogs to crap on, the zombified skagheads and overweight men with no teeth on mobility scooters … how can I put this? There does not seem to be a sense of jubilation in the air, of victory, of triumph. And yet, of course, there should be.
On June 23, 2016, a greater proportion of people in Thorntree voted to leave the EU than in any other council ward on record. The Leave vote was 82.5 per cent — that's getting close to unanimity. But in Middlesbrough as
