On perhaps the most febrile day of postwar British politics, the early signs of agitation were in the Leave camp. Some Leave voters appeared to believe that the traditional pencil mark in the ballot box might be rubbed out, and so insisted on taking in their pen.
Police came to Chichester polling station called by REMAIN side to stop me LENDING my PEN to all voters.#fraud pic.twitter.com/CGqra3yXR1— Jacqueline Jackson (@willowhalegreen) June 23, 2016
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Both UK Independence Party leader Nigel Farage and former London mayor Boris Johnson appeared to concede defeat, only to testily deny they had done any such thing.
Just been asked on tube by @BorisJohnson if I voted leave. I say no. He concedes He's lost anyway. Awkward #EUref pic.twitter.com/sAGcNevw3l— Lewis Iwu (@lewisiwu) June 23, 2016
It was at this point that the first ominous rumblings came from the north of England. Newcastle had voted Remain, but not by anything like the margin anticipated; Sunderland to Leave, far more decisively. On the markets the pound went into freefall. Now it was the pundits' and the bookies' turn to account for themselves.
POUND COLLAPSING ON SURPRISE SUNDERLAND RESULT FOR LEAVE pic.twitter.com/bwhgxJ8gD1— Paul Colgan (@Colgo) June 23, 2016
For a while results from Scotland and London - two of the 12 regions into which the United Kingdom was divided for the vote - put Remain's nose in front. But the lines on the map were becoming a chasm. In the north-east of England, a region that has never truly recovered from the demise of its great primary industries, Remain was being hammered. Soon the rest of the English regions joined in, and the revision of the experts was upon us.
Seems we are heading for result bad for UK, bad for pollsters and (least important) embarrassing for me— Peter Kellner (@PeterKellner1) June 24, 2016
Even more alarmingly, Wales - long regarded as a bastion of the status quo in British politics - rejected calls to Remain, 52.5 per cent to 47.5 per cent. Some people saw in this a collapse in confidence in the Labour Party, long dominant in the principality, but others pointed to the tremendous unpopularity of David Cameron's British government and still others to "left-behind alienation".
By four in the morning UK time, Farage's early complaints about the decision to allow late registration of voters had evaporated and he was declaring the night a triumph.
"I now dare to dream..."Nigel Farage, #Brexit campaignerhttps://t.co/K6pbNnkHr0 #EUref pic.twitter.com/5xey0ipMvH— BBC Breaking News (@BBCBreaking) June 24, 2016
Though his reference to taking back control of the country "without a shot being fired" drew a strong reaction in the wake of the murder of MP Jo Cox just a week earlier.
Shouts of "shame" & "that's disgusting" at Remain party when Nigel Farage said Leave had won the #euref "without a shot being fired"— James Landale (@BBCJLandale) June 24, 2016
As the nation awaited a statement from Prime Minister David Cameron, the man who set the entire referendum process in motion and now a political eunuch, veteran Labour MP Keith Vaz summed up the disbelief and shock in the Remain camp.
"It's a terrible day for Britain with immense consequences," he told the BBC. "It will be catastrophic for our country, for Europe and the rest of the world."
But that was not at all how supporters of the Leave campaign saw it. For them, a bright new day had just begun.
The Thames is so glorious this morning pic.twitter.com/oBl7jAKxeH— Douglas Carswell MP (@DouglasCarswell) June 24, 2016
There will be a 6am edition of @TheSun pic.twitter.com/eeh0QVh4ME— Tony Gallagher (@tonygallagher) June 24, 2016
There were now two Britains, and it was impossible for anyone to tell how they might be reconciled. Indeed, for Scotland and Northern Ireland - both of which voted decisively to Remain - the only answer may be not to reconcile at all, but to strike out on new paths of their own.
Bye bye Britain. Biggest consequence of #EUref will not be UK leaving EU but #Scotland leaving UK. https://t.co/iTp5q0nacO— Gareth Harding (@garethharding) June 24, 2016
The glorious morning has some dark clouds on its horizon.
Maher Mughrabi is Foreign Editor of The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald.