Everyone was discussing it when I walked into school that morning. It had already been across TV and then it went viral online, like nothing else before it. No-one understood it, but we were all talking about it. We asked our teachers, but, as usual, they were clueless.
We had no idea what to make of the Referendum result. David Cameron had just announced his resignation. Sterling was in free fall. It was the only thing on people's minds, that sunny June day.
Then Donald Trump was elected President. What to make of that, too? There were dark jokes circulating that at least we weren't the 'screw-ups' of the year. Trump, in his fashion, captured conversations this side of the Atlantic too, even in the playground and the classroom.
And between Brexit and President Trump, the news feeds have barely stopped rolling. Every week, something else to engage with, as teenagers discussed 'Parliament', 'European Union' and 'impeachment'. Politics could be mentioned in the same breath as Love Island, The 1975 and history revision and no longer draw scorn or weird looks.
So, politics became a public subject. Something worth knowing about, and a reasonable discussion topic. Not just in school, but at work or with family, too. Because as long as the disasters kept floating in, it was all rather interesting.
Notice the past tense though? Because that era is over.
With its convincing majority, Boris Johnson's government has already passed the Withdrawal Agreement, and his large majority means he has a clear authority to do whatever he likes. Most remainers have quietly conceded defeat, and the grudging British respect for elected authority has kicked in - the mentality now is 'back to normal life and wait for the next one'.
So, that period of Brexit, with all Theresa May's failures and the media frenzy, is over. There are no more disasters on the horizon to captivate us, or nasty debates about what Brexit should look like.
And the actions of President Trump alone will not keep politics in the schoolyard or the break-room. It is a given that he will not be impeached, and bar the apocalypse, his controversies are so frequent that they'll hardly merit a brief comment at work, never mind science lessons. Even if he wins the 2020 election, we'll just keep our heads down and carry on.
And rapidly, politics will stop being relevant. It will be met with the same derision it has earned from fourteen year olds for centuries. No longer worthy of schoolyard chat, politics will again become a quiet, niche interest.
Political discussion has reached its high-water mark. Time for the status quo again it seems.
Theo
We had no idea what to make of the Referendum result. David Cameron had just announced his resignation. Sterling was in free fall. It was the only thing on people's minds, that sunny June day.
Then Donald Trump was elected President. What to make of that, too? There were dark jokes circulating that at least we weren't the 'screw-ups' of the year. Trump, in his fashion, captured conversations this side of the Atlantic too, even in the playground and the classroom.
And between Brexit and President Trump, the news feeds have barely stopped rolling. Every week, something else to engage with, as teenagers discussed 'Parliament', 'European Union' and 'impeachment'. Politics could be mentioned in the same breath as Love Island, The 1975 and history revision and no longer draw scorn or weird looks.
So, politics became a public subject. Something worth knowing about, and a reasonable discussion topic. Not just in school, but at work or with family, too. Because as long as the disasters kept floating in, it was all rather interesting.
Notice the past tense though? Because that era is over.
With its convincing majority, Boris Johnson's government has already passed the Withdrawal Agreement, and his large majority means he has a clear authority to do whatever he likes. Most remainers have quietly conceded defeat, and the grudging British respect for elected authority has kicked in - the mentality now is 'back to normal life and wait for the next one'.
So, that period of Brexit, with all Theresa May's failures and the media frenzy, is over. There are no more disasters on the horizon to captivate us, or nasty debates about what Brexit should look like.
And the actions of President Trump alone will not keep politics in the schoolyard or the break-room. It is a given that he will not be impeached, and bar the apocalypse, his controversies are so frequent that they'll hardly merit a brief comment at work, never mind science lessons. Even if he wins the 2020 election, we'll just keep our heads down and carry on.
And rapidly, politics will stop being relevant. It will be met with the same derision it has earned from fourteen year olds for centuries. No longer worthy of schoolyard chat, politics will again become a quiet, niche interest.
Political discussion has reached its high-water mark. Time for the status quo again it seems.
Theo
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