The Brexit vote is not just a judgement on Brussels – it was a chance to stick it to Londoners and the establishment

Rural communities in the north are sick and tired of people from ‘down south’ telling them what to do. The vote to leave was a demand for independence

The Yorkshire Dales: voters in rural areas of God’s Own County favoured Brexit, while those in Harrogate and Leeds were for Remain (Getty)

After the shock, the fallout. A friend emailed: “the worst day of my life”. Another texted a single word: “grim”. In boxing terms, the Brexiteers didn’t achieve a clean knockout, but they certainly delivered a killer blow to our political leaders.

One down, more to go? The result represents a massive two fingers to David Cameron and Jeremy Corbyn – a clear message from a disaffected electorate.

The mood was set when that young lady told Cameron to “stop waffling” on a television debate last week. Hang on, what happened to respect for the Prime Minister? The gap between ordinary people and the pontificating politicos started off huge and, when the time came to vote, the majority had decided it was time to settle scores, to give them a kicking.

Surely the result defies reason. It flies in the face of expert advice from business people and thousands of sage words from the great and the good. But people have voted for far more than leaving the EU, controlling immigration, protecting our jobs and controlling our budget. They want a clear-out of our cosy establishment, no less.

Respect for politicians plummeted after the expenses scandal back in 2008, and it’s never really recovered. In the meantime, the language they talk has become ever more opaque. The threats, the bullying, the language of fear thrown at us over the weeks of campaigning has just served to emphasise that most of us can’t stand politicians and don’t believe they are telling the truth.

Labour cannot gloat, for it has suffered more than the Tories. It didn’t send a clear message to workers, and party members couldn’t even agree among themselves.

I don’t know why I was surprised at the result. I should have read the signs. I don’t exist in a little bubble in trendy Clerkenwell. Over the past few months my time has been pretty equally split between Kent, rural North Yorkshire and inner London, so I’ve had a good chance to talk to people, watch local news and take soundings.

Kent was never going to want to remain in the EU, and the only parts of south-east England that voted to remain were the "well to do" bits – the cosmopolitan purlieus of Brighton, Lewes, Tonbridge Wells. From Thanet to Hastings, Dover to Canterbury, Remain was firmly in the minority.

This in a country where fruit and vegetables are picked and tended by thousands of economic migrants. Somehow, local people are convinced “they” are taking “our” jobs. Harrogate – a wealthy Yorkshire town which relies on Eastern Europeans to run its booming hotel, restaurant and conference businesses – voted to Remain, as did Leeds and York with their large student populations. But out in the countryside, it was a completely different story.

In rural areas like Craven, East Riding, Durham and Calderdale, the Leave camp prevailed. An hour’s drive from Harrogate, in my village pub, not a single farmer wanted to remain in the EU. In the high street, few small businesses disagreed. In spite of the fact farmers receive EU subsidies, the falling price for milk had helped to bring this result. But surely their ire should be directed at the supermarkets, not the EU?

There’s another factor at work: when you get this far north, quite simply, the locals hate Londoners and, by default, Brussels. They are sick and tired of people from “down south” telling them what to do, issuing edicts about the number of affordable homes and sending them endless health and safety directives.

The vote to leave in the north and north-east was more or less a demand for more independence, a freedom from centralised democracy. It was an expression of local pride.

The same was true in Cornwall and the West Country. This gut feeling cuts right across party politics; traditional Labour voters (more of whom turned out to vote on Thursday than did in the last election) turned their back on Corbyn’s lacklustre advice. What kind of leader rates the EU as “seven-and-a-half out of 10” and then expects people to follow him?

At last, voters had a simple proposal they could either accept or reject, and it engaged them in a way that party manifestos so often fail to do.

In the Labour strongholds of Wales, Leave won the day, in spite of the fact the country relies on billions of euros from the EU. Who is going to fund the budget gap in future?

Once again more Labour voters in Wales voted this week than did in the last election. What’s exhilarating about the result is this chance to enforce political change. To clear out the dead wood.

Let’s see more of bright articulate people who connect with the public like Ruth Davidson: what a star! Out of chaos, will come some exciting times ahead. I’m sure of that.