Now Brexit brings a bitter Tory reckoning at the polls

theguardian.com:

‘W hen one with honeyed words but evil mind persuades the mob, great woes befall the state.” Euripides was not of course referring to Brexit in his play Orestes, but to the chaos caused by Clytemnestra’s murder of Agamemnon and Orestes’s dispatch, in turn, of Clytemnestra.

The disastrous outcome for the Conservatives in the local elections may not lead to any physical violence, but all the signs are, as the recriminations begin, that the Tories are in for a metaphorical bloodbath.

Let us face it: the Brexiters, led by Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage, conducted their referendum campaign with honeyed words; their minds may not have been intentionally evil, but you could have fooled me. Brexit has proved to be an unmitigated disaster.

The evidence mounts that great woes have befallen the state. But this is only the beginning. Our imports from and exports to our nearest and most important trading partner, namely the EU, are already suffering from serious delays – in some cases coming to a halt as businesses decide to give up the ghost. The bureaucracy is going to become far worse at the end of the year, when the full impact of the trading limitations the government has imposed on itself is due to be felt.

Meanwhile, our scientists are hampered by lack of access to the EU’s Horizon programme, the young can no longer enjoy the educational benefits of Erasmus student exchanges, and freedom of movement is inhibited in all sorts of ways. Moreover, as the realities of modern economic diplomacy point to the wisdom of belonging to a European group that can hold its own in the face of US and Chinese influence, we are left hanging on the fringes with precious little bargaining power.

And yet, and yet: the Labour leader, Keir Starmer,