'Australia-style deal means nothing' - James reacts to Alok Sharma's Brexit comments
19 October 2020, 11:19 | Updated: 19 October 2020, 12:12
'Australia style deal means absolutely nothing'
"Australia-style deal means nothing"- this is James O'Brien's passionate monologue reacting to comments made by Busines Secretary Alok Sharma.
Listening to a clip of Business Secretary Alok Sharma speaking about Brexit led to James O'Brien launching into a passionate monologue.
When Nick Ferrari asked Mr Sharma what the difference was between No Deal and an Australia-style deal the Business Secretary branded it a matter of "semantics."
James said it was "wordplay" point out that "Australia-style deal means nothing."
He said the use of the term was "worse than disingenuous" because "the country of Australia has the European Union on the list of territories it wants to do a trade agreement with."
"What's the difference between an Australia deal and No Deal?"
He pointed out the country also trades "on an epic scale" with China.
James said it was "weird" for him "now that many people are coming around to realise many of the things that we were saying when there was still a chance of stopping the nonsense of Brexit.
"There's no chance at all now, so how do you frame these conversations?" James asked.
James questioned how many people thought "Australia-style deal actually meant something?"
"Why Australia?" James asked, questioning if it was because "they're slightly more suntanned versions of us."
"They're essentially a white, anglosphere country" which could give people the subconscious impression "it's going to be like Ramsey Street and the weather's going to improve, it's utterly meaningless," James said.
"Arguably it's worse than meaningless," James said, adding he did not know what the point was of pointing it out now as "there's nothing we can do about it."
Brexit: What is an Australia-style trade deal?
James said there were still people who were looking at issues as if they were "Leave or Remain" despite the fact "Remain as a word and a movement has been meaningless since January."
"There is no such thing as Remain, you can't Remain in something you have already left."
James added it had taken "four years for the Australia-style deal penny to drop, god knows how long it's going to take for the rest of it to drop."
The LBC presenter said he wasn't ready yet to think that the best way forward for the country is to forgive all the cheating and lying of the last four years and pull together to fix the mess that they've made.
Watch the whole fascinating monologue in the video at the top of the page.
