If we all stopped shouting, we might actually solve Brexit

WHE Na large man started swearing at me in t he street last Thursday, I wasn’t especially surprised or upset. Occasional TV appearances mean all kinds of odd things happen to you.

The best two have been the angry person who strode up to me on a crowded station to say: ‘You’re that Peter Tatchell, aren’t you?’ to which I could only answer ‘No’; and the person who stopped me on a chilly morning to exclaim ‘Professor Dawkins! Jesus loves you!’ To this I had no reply.

Sometimes people, usually Guardian readers on trains, glare angrily at me without speaking for ages, seeking in vain to unnerve me. Others, I must mention, tentatively offer kind words or expressions of agreement, which is gratifying. But the swearing man was not so restrained.

He was plainly out of control. I tried to ask him to tell me exactly what the problem was, but he preferred to use various lavatory words of the sort favoured by modern comedians on the BBC. Occasionally he spluttered: ‘Just look at you!’

He was not a child or even a teenager but a mature adult, about 6ft tall and quite powerfully built. He was not unhinged by drugs. He was a perfectly normal person inflamed by political anger. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he had what now passes for a university education. All attempts to reason, respond or even humour him met with more rage. I admit to having told him he was incoherent in the hope of halting his flow of expletives. He stormed away and then turned round again three times, to deliver more rude words.

And then he was gone. No doubt he later told his friends, or perhaps his cat, that he’d given me a piece of his mind, which I suppose he had. I shall treasure it.

I think there are many people like this, on both sides of the European Union argument. I think they should get a grip on themselves. I had heard that, during the Munich crisis of 1938 and the Suez crisis of 1956, people ended friendships because they felt so strongly on one side or the other.

It didn’t do us much good then. It isn’t doing any good now. In fact it’s doing harm.

I have believed for many years that this country should be independent. I am far from happy with the way we are approaching this.

I also think that a majority of 52 per cent to 48 per cent obliges the winners to show respect to the losers. ‘In defeat, defiance; in victory, generosity’ always seemed to me to be a very good motto. A bit of rejoicing at the time (and a bit of moaning) were fine. But now we have to get on with life.

But if I say so, all that happens is that zealots from the ‘ Leave’ side attack me as a coward or faintheart, while zealots from the ‘Remain’ side do not even notice, and continue to regard me as a neoNazi hate-merchant who longs to drown migrant children.

Look, everybody, this has to be a compromise. We will have to make deals with the EU. And we will have to make peace with each other. To do so, we will have to realise that, among civilised people, nobody ever gets everything he wants.

What is the point of an independent nation split into two solitudes which won’t speak to or listen to each other?

Peter Hitchens Read Peter’s blog at hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk and follow him on Twitter @clarkemicah