Why?

Why am I so upset about the result?
Why aren't I applauding the Leave voters? Congratulating them on a hard won game against the odds?
Why aren't I quietly accepting defeat and moving on?

Well, for a start, some brief figures. 17 million people voted for Brexit. There are 60 million people in the UK. That's a little over a quarter. That's not a ringing national victory. That's way less half of the total electorate (46.5m). In short, there are far more people in the UK that did NOT vote to leave the EU than did.
That is irrelevant, in the grand scheme of things, because democracy requires people to exercise their right to vote or miss out. It also requires the electorate to take part in civic and political life, but as people on facebook keep pointing out, they only really care about politics for one day every few years and then it gets boring.
I don't think a re-referendum would achieve anything, mainly because a referendum is not legally binding and the government can ignore it. The government would be fucking silly to disregard it and stay in the EU regardless (although the more Boris Johnson speaks, the more it seems that is precisely what he wants to do), but they still have to begin the legal process and that is something the Great British Public will have nothing to do with. It is going to be a long, painfully drawn out process to the leave the EU. We have not left yet. We have not even begun to leave.

So, why am I personally upset? I have spent years now, particularly the last two, studying structural inequality. Before you run off, structural inequality is the reason why people living in shitty areas tend to live shorter, poorer lives than people living in better areas. It is the reason there is a nine year gap between expected lifespan in the poorest and richest boroughs of the country. It's the reason poor areas have crappy job prospects and lack amenities. I discussed all this with reference specifically to my area in this post, if you want to see how that directly affects someone.
Now, the Tories (according to their ideology) prefer to think that people make their own luck. That your circumstances of birth have nothing to do with your future potential, that you can break the glass ceiling. And I'm sure for a few people, that's true, but for the vast majority, you remain stuck in the same social and wealth sphere you are born into. Hence why politicians tend to be rich, from the south and privately educated. And this belief has led to them cutting all forms of social infrastructure over the last few years.
To give an example, covering Labour, coalition and Tory governments: in the town I grew up in, a giant housing estate was planned, with a view to doubling the town's population. They began to build it in 2002. They didn't think to provide it with a primary school for twelve years. It didn't get a supermarket until 2010. It still doesn't have a doctor's surgery, or anything you might think is essential to increasing the population of a small town by 50%, and is so far away from most amenities or adequate public transport that a car is absolutely necessary to live there. Infrastructure is no longer considered important. The selling off of schools to become academies is another sign of this: an attempt to privately fund important public amenities without any real accountability.

So, what is accountability in this context? Well, it's being socially responsible. It's admitting when you get something wrong, and trying to fix it. It's having a higher power that you have to report to when things go right and when things go wrong. In the NHS, accountability is very important because if you cock something up, people die. But in government, accountability is also extremely important because if you cock stuff up, thousands die. Perhaps not the same day. Perhaps not even the next day. But over time, life expectancies drop, national wealth drops, opportunities fall away.
I see a lack of accountability in the government farce that has followed the referendum. Cameron has resigned basically because he doesn't want to sort leaving out, despite being the one who held the referendum in the first place. Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage are both swearing up is down when it comes to promises made in the run up to the referendum. Corbyn's entire cabinet has fallen away, not wanting to face leaving the EU and blaming him for the whole thing, rather than Cameron.

The EU may be a bureaucratic nightmare, but it also provides a protective framework of legislation that aids the common man. To give an example often cited to me as a reason to leave the EU: the European Working Time Directive. Do you really want to be hired on a 70hr week contract? Do you not want to be paid for overtime, or have your overtime recognised as such? Do you think this government have any interest in protecting working rights? Our government has taken a decided slide to the right in policy of late, more right wing than even Thatcher managed. In response, Labour has also taken a rightward slide and bizarrely, UKIP and their nationalistic bordering on fascist policies, are attempting to become the party of the working classes. Politics in this country is all over the place. I don't trust them. I don't trust them. I don't trust them.
I am filled with fear about what happens when we lose the layer of accountability offered by the EU, when our democratically elected government, democratically elect to fuck the poor some more because they haven't been punished enough yet.

I see no triumph here. The EU have funded so many projects to try and reduce the inequality in our society and now it will be our government's responsibility to try and replicate that. It will be our government's responsibility to try and equal and distribute EU funding into the arts, into science, even into cancer research. And I don't trust them to do it. Our government have not had to deal with this type of organisation since the 70s, when many of them were children. It's one thing to say "We were fine before we joined the EU" but that was two generations ago and people forget.

Yes, this is a cynical and negative view, but I find it difficult to be positive in the wake of such a total government breakdown. Perhaps it will be OK. I hope so.

Next time: on ageism and voting and why judgemental youths need to check themselves before they wreck themselves