Pottymouth Strikes Again
Click this link, you know you want to.
The above-linked column makes good reading. Don’t be fooled by its Brexit-bashing title, which was chosen by a hack at the EUphile Guardian. In fact the article by Frankie Boyle, while giving both campaigns a mauling, does a brilliant job of tearing the Remain case apart, especially the misguided left-wing branch of Remain. Presumably Boyle is pro-EU like most of Twitter’s comedian clique, and I went in expecting the usual blinkered federalist propaganda festooned with fashionable aggro-comedy, but he writes the piece from a hate-all-sides perspective and it works.
“Boris Johnson, looking like a Harry Potter spell that’s brought all the hair in Dumbledore’s plughole to life…”
I’m not a fan of Frankie Boyle as you can tell. He’s always seemed too on message and obnoxious for my liking, and his shockathon humour isn’t generally my cup of tea; as for his association with Mark Millar, he and others get off far too lightly; but after reading his essay I can see why some of my friends think highly of him. There are flashes of genius, and he makes precision political cuts which I’ve not witnessed anywhere else, including the following point:
“Paul Mason made an interesting case against Brexit, asserting that it would lead to a few years of a rightwing Tory government, probably led by Boris, freshly empowered by the result. Yet I think we have to factor in that Cameron is, unlike Boris, a fantastically competent radical rightwinger, and he will be equally energised by a Remain vote.”
I’m probably wrong, but Boyle sounds to me like a man having second thoughts about the great European superstate project. Wishful thinking, perhaps. Regardless, his observations on the reality of the situation will have many of his (and my) fellow lefties wincing while they laugh.
“The most obvious beneficiary of a Remain vote will be George Osborne, a man who exudes all the warmth of Scott of the Antarctic’s last dump, who made detailed claims about what the British economy would be like in 2030, despite not being able to predict the recession a week after it happened.”
Has the debate got Scotland’s meanest comic questioning the status quo or will he be flying the EU flag next week? Whatever he does next that Guardian article will surely open some eyes to the bigger picture.
