Brrrrrr ......

....... a cold shower, a sudden winter's breeze or maybe  the sense of a striking and enlightning ray of sun came over the European population this past early Friday summer morning as news head lines revealed something we had not expected when we laid down in our beds the short night before.

The thousands of formal and spontaneous reactions that have popped up since from less or more informed and /or involved people show all the more that in 2016 a large and in fact a majority part of an elecotrate are happy to choose insecurity over the foreseeable maintenance of what has been in place.

Anything from the split of the United Kingdom or even a return of war-like scenarios to quickly copying the Amazon. co.uk wish list into the shopping bag or a return of French as more popular language, the common denominator in first hand thoughts does seem to be a "what's in it for me ...".

I like taking a cold shower every now and then.  I suppose it keeps me alert (besides that it is said to be good for the skin).   I am not looking forward to another series of urgent EU meetings of heads of state occupying media stream time but I have inherited a love/hate relationship with politicians and so I will be attentive anyway to the continuous avoiding and inclonclusive press releases in the days ahead.

At times like this I can vividly see my father who had this way of placing his hand on his back pocket to check if his wallet was still there, while watching an enormous amount of public office servants travelling in between EU capitals on the expense of millions of taxpayers.

I think he would be satisfied with the service the UK electorate has rendered to all of the EU, and so am I. Whether any individual feels to agree or not with the UK abandoning the EU, those political leaders that remain in place are absolutely forced to re-think what they have (not) been doing.

Leadership comes with the burden (and benefits) of responsibility.  In 2016 this must imply that any leader, from a simple household parent leading his family to a politician that top lifted her or his career all into a perfect democratic environment keep a constant connection with what happens amongst the electorate that they directly or indirectly represents in or outside the borders of their jurisdiction.  In 2016 no one can claim that they did not know what was really going on.

Whenever the instrument of a referendum, like any questionnaire that any organisation, such as a country, can choose to put forward generally shows that the leaders of such an organisation have distanced themselves too much of the ordinary lives they claim to be concerned with.

Anything a population can then do to remind politicians of the task they have at hand, I can only perceive as a good thing.