Presenter questions why Brexiteers are celebrating ‘imposing economic sanctions’ on Britain

The broadcaster said Britain was in a ‘unique’ position where no country living in a democracy has managed to see the positives of economic sanctions.

He pondered why so many Brexiteers were celebrating the end of freedom of movement as a result of Brexit, and questioned what exactly the overall positive was.

He asked listeners: ‘Do you remember all this stuff about liberal tears?

‘Do you remember once it became clear that you were going to be worse off? There wasn’t going to be any money for the NHS, you were quite possibly going to lose your job, factories were going to close, companies were going to leave, the cards were not held by us they were held by them, the German car industry wasn’t going to come galloping to our rescue, leaving the European Union wasn’t going to deliver a single measurable benefit to your life, but it was going to rain down unpleasantness and avoidable misery like it was going out of fashion.’

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He continued to ask listeners what he was missing from all of the celebrations.

He said: ‘Liberal tears. I’d get it on social media all the time the effort that people used to put into photoshop and stuff, and I used to sit there and stare at it thinking ‘what am I missing here? What is the message here?’

‘And of course the message was nothing’s going to get better in my life, in fact it’s probably going to get worse, but I’m already miserable and morally bankrupt so my pleasure comes from your pain.

‘And that’s how a country ends up imposing economic sanctions on itself, celebrating the abolitions of freedoms enjoyed by its own citizens.’

The presenter credited Britain with managing to do something that only dictatorships normally can manage to do.

He said: ‘Celebrating imposing economic sanctions on itself and celebrating the abolition of freedoms enjoyed by its own citizens, that’s Brexit Britain and it’s, I think, unique.

‘Certainly democratically. Dictators might have been able to inflict this sort of nightmare on the population, but democratically in a proper democracy or a functioning democracy at least, the idea you would celebrate imposing economic sanctions upon your own island, while also cheering the abolition of your own freedom is objectively incredible isn’t it?’

O’Brien credited Dominic Cummings, Boris Johnson’s senior adviser, with managing to make it sound like a positive.

‘Let’s just take a moment to reflect upon an astonishing political achievement that is.

‘It is of course one that leads inevitably to the Durham doorway of Dominic Cummings.

‘What is the achievement here? Well we’ve persuaded people to celebrate the abolition of their own freedoms and the imposition of economic sanctions on their own country.

He asked listeners what is ‘the thing that actually makes it all worthwhile’?

‘People like James O’Brien and Gary Lineker aren’t very happy about it? Is that really all you’ve got now? And you’re cross with me, rather than the people that did this to you, and your children’s future and your grandchildren’s?’