Brexit: not eggs-actly straightforward
IDO hate to bang on about Brexit, but it’s nearly here and we’re still no closer to knowing what it’s going to be like. Obviously, we can make an educated guess based on facts, but half the population (or less than half these days, given that 1.3m of the Brexit electorate has died, to be replaced by even more young people) has decided that facts aren’t as important as feelings.
For example, it doesn’t matter that the UK was always sovereign, and always had the power to walk away from the EU, because it didn’t FEEL like it was.
But the fact is, nobody actually knows, not for sure, not even the Government. If you interviewed the Government for a job and asked them where they thought they’d be in five years’ time, they couldn’t answer you with any sort of conviction. In a fair world, some of them would actually have a conviction.
The only thing we do know is that the people who have been pressing hardest for Brexit are obsessed with cakes. The former Foreign Secretary was convinced in public that we could “have our cake and eat it”. John Redwood, the perfectly normal former Welsh Secretary, talked about making our own cakes instead of helping other countries with their cakes. And UKIP is full of fruitcakes.
So I have decided to explain the Brexit process through the medium of cakes.
Leaver: I want an omelette. Remainer: Right. it’s just we haven’t got any eggs.
Leaver: Yes, we have. There they are. (He points at a cake.) Remainer: They’re in the cake. Leaver: Yes, get them out of the cake, please. Remainer: But we voted in 1974 to put them into a cake. Leaver: Yes, but that cake has got icing on it. Nobody said there was going to be icing on it. Remainer: Icing is good.
Leaver: And there are raisins in it. I don’t like raisins. Nobody mentioned raisins. I demand another vote. (David Cameron enters.)
David Cameron: OK.
(David Cameron scarpers.)
Leaver: Right, where’s my omelette? Remainer: I told you, the eggs are in the cake. Leaver: Well, get them out.
EU: It’s our cake. (Jeremy Corbyn enters.)
Jeremy Corbyn: Yes, get them out now.
Remainer: I have absolutely no idea how to get them out. Don’t you know how to get them out? Leaver: Yes! You just get them out and then you make an omelette. Remainer: But how?! Didn’t you give this any thought?
Leaver: Saboteur! You’re talking eggs down.
Theresa May: It’s OK, I can do it. Remainer: How?
Theresa May: There was a vote to remove the eggs from the cake, and so the eggs will be removed from the cake.
Remainer: Yeah, but...
Leaver: Hang on, if we take the eggs out of the cake, does that mean we don’t have any cake? I didn’t say I didn’t want the cake.
EU: It’s our cake.
Remainer: But you can’t take the eggs out of the cake and then still have a cake.
Leaver: You can. I saw the latest bake off and you can definitely make cakes without eggs in them. It’s just that they’re horrible.
Remainer: Fine. Take the eggs out. See what happens.
Leaver: It’s not my responsibility to take the eggs out. Get on with it. Remainer: Why should I have to come up with some long-winded incredibly difficult chemical process to extract eggs that have bonded at the molecular level to the cake, while somehow still having the cake?
Leaver: You lost, get over it. Theresa May: By the way, I’ve started the clock on this.
Remainer: So I assume you have a plan?
Theresa May: Actually, back in a bit. just having another election. Remainer: Jeremy, are you going to sort this out?
Jeremy Corbyn: Yes. No. Maybe. EU: It’s our cake.
Leaver: Where’s my omelette? I voted for an omelette.
Remainer: This is ridiculous. This is never going to work. We should have another vote, or at least stop what we’re doing until we know how to get the eggs out of the cake while keeping the bits of the cake that we all like.
Leaver/May/Corbyn: We had a vote. Stop sabotaging the will of the people. Eggsit means eggsit.
Remainer: Fine. I’m moving to France. The cakes are nicer there. Leaver: You can’t. We’ve taken away your freedom of movement.
The people pressing hardest for Brexit are obsessed with cakes