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Politics

06th Oct 2018

Dara Ó Briain explains the ignorance of some British people over the border and Brexit

Paul Moore

Perfectly said by the Irish comedian

Given the fact that Dara Ó Briain regularly hosts Mock the Week, the Irish comedian knows the importance of staying relevant and informed with regards to current affairs and politics.

Hell, that’s the whole point of the satirical show but as many people will know, there’s nothing funny about some of the statements made by the likes of David Davis, Boris Johnson and Jacob Rees-Mogg with regards to Brexit and the border issue.

Much like Jon Stewart during his time on The Daily Show, it appears that a large part of the Brexit discussion has now entered the domain where comedians are better at telling the news than most politicians.

For example, it’s impossible not to love Andrew Maxwell’s answer when he was asked if there’s a solution to the Irish border dilemma.

“Number one, it’s not the Irish border, it’s the British border in Ireland. The Irish border is the beach. We’re getting a little bit tired in Ireland of all this getting passed onto us. We – along with everyone in the EU – did our homework two years ago, you’re (U.K.) still on the bus on the way to school,” he said.

On this note, Ó Briain was a guest on The Late Late Show and the topic of Brexit and Northern Ireland came up.

Here’s what the Mock the Week host had to say:

“The fact that they’re closing the freedom of movement is one of the fundamental things that makes us different to the English. They regard freedom of movement as something that was imposed on them, where as we, never in a million years would we vote to lose the right to live and work in other countries. We’d be mad because with our history, it’s clear that we travel and work. They don’t have that at all but you have to accept that historically, that’s just not their thing. They haven’t had the need to do that.”

He adds:

“They regard things very differently and it’s not looking good and it’s a bit of a mess. It illustrates yet again – like this wasn’t the case for Northern Ireland anyway – that they’ve no idea, or particular concern, about what’s happening in Northern Ireland. On Mock the Week, I’ve tried to do bits where I go’ sure look at your man Jacob Rees-Mogg, what is he even talking about the North?!?!’ to an audience that also don’t know – and they don’t even know why I’m openly saying that this is ridiculous. Therefore it doesn’t run, they don’t see it at all and they’re very happy not to know about it, whatsoever.”

Take a look at the whole segment here.

Clip via The Late Late Show