'Breathtaking bone-headedness': James O'Brien reacts to Nigel Farage's admission that Brexit 'failed'
16 May 2023, 19:57
James O'Brien's reaction to Farage's Brexit backtrack
James O'Brien criticises Brexiteers' "epic ignorance" for "pretending" that Brexit could have gone better after Nigel Farage's shocking comment on BBC's Newsnight.
After Nigel Farage admitted that "Brexit has failed", James O'Brien broke down the economic illogicality of Brexit.
"If it wasn't clear to you then that you were putting your trust in someone utterly, utterly undeserving of it, then it has to be clear to you now," he said of staunch Nigel Farage supporters in 2016.
James went on: "Because he's admitting it's a failure, as it was bound to be, and he's trying to blame it on other people, and he's dismissing expertise and evidence as he has always done, and he's treating you like a mug, which is what his entire life has been built upon."
Appearing on BBC's Newsnight yesterday, Nigel Farage said: "We're regulating our own businesses even more than they were as EU members. Brexit has failed."
Listen and subscribe to Unprecedented: Inside Downing Street on Global Player
He reacted: "I told you they'd be fine. Nothing will touch them, they'll be absolutely fine. They'll all be fine. Every single one of them.
"Rocco Forte yesterday, 'Yeah, I might emigrate to Italy. It's awful in the European Union. That's why I backed Brexit and gave £100,000 to the Conservative Party. But, the way things are going in this country, I might emigrate to Italy.' Rocco Forte, what an absolute clown.
"They're everywhere," he said of Brexiteers. "Everywhere you turn these people, they're not going to be touched by it. Rishi Sunak, he's got £6-700 million to fall back on. [Do] you think he's going to struggle? With the cost of living?
"See, there's no schadenfreude. There's no joy in this."
James continued: "Today there is no celebration, there is no happiness. There's vindication and validation, but it's pointless really. There's no pleasure in it because we always knew it was going to happen."
"Now this claim that we should be removing regulations... the reason why we obey regulations that have been in place for years is so that we can carry on selling stuff into markets that have regulations. You remove all the regulations, where are you going to sell it?
"It's such epic ignorance, such breathtaking bone-headedness that now dedicates itself, or is now dedicated to, pretending that it could've gone better," James concluded.
