Posting this status today as a mark of respect for the significance of what this day will be as viewed as by the historians of the future, the day we trigger Article 50, starting the process of leaving the EU.
I apologise to the young people of today, and those of tomorrow who are yet to be born. I apologise that the actions of this electorate has robbed you of the opportunities to move freely throughout your own backyard, to exchange cultures and ideas with those abroad. I apologise that we robbed you of future relationships, wives, husbands, friends and families. I apologise to the businessmen and scientists, sight seers and sports players, for the chances to collaborate and expand your horizons beyond what we can offer on this solemn rock out in the sea.
We have let you down. Ignorance of facts, fear of the foreign, hyperbole and hatred; this United Kingdom has never been more divided; and Great Britain has never been so tarnished.
Whenever we go through times of darkness, I find it good to look to Churchill;
We contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.
The principles and values of what makes us British have never felt to foreign to me, and the many other 48% than they have today.
I look forward to joining you on mainland Europe in due course.
Hopefully the future generation can look back and see that we did not take this lying down.