A first-class mess

MOST economists were against the idea of Britain leaving the European Union. But perhaps few felt so strongly about it as the economics lecturer at Cambridge University who, following the referendum on June 23rd, turned up to a faculty meeting unclothed with “Brexit leaves Britain naked” daubed across her torso. Although the form of protest was unusual, the feeling it expressed was not: in a poll conducted prior to the vote by Times Higher Education, a trade paper, nine in ten university staff said they would vote to Remain. At University College London (UCL), where one in ten students comes from the EU, the mood after the result was one of “deep shock, grief and then concern,” says Michael Arthur, the university’s president.