Heroic Failure: Brexit and the Politics of Pain

Synopsis

In Exploring The Answers To The Question: 'why Did Britain Vote Leave?', Fintan O'toole Finds Himself Discovering How Trivial Journalistic Lies Became Far From Trivial National Obsessions; How The Pose Of Indifference To Truth And Historical Fact Has Come To Define The Style Of An Entire Political Elite; How A Country That Once Had Colonies Is Redefining Itself As An Oppressed Nation Requiring Liberation; The Strange Gastronomic And Political Significance Of Prawn-flavoured Crisps, And Their Role In The Rise Of Boris Johnson; The Dreams Of Revolutionary Deregulation And Privatisation That Drive Arron Banks, Nigel Farage And Jacob Rees-mogg; And The Silent Rise Of English Nationalism, The Force That Dare Not Speak Its Name. He Also Discusses The Fatal Attraction Of Herioc Failure, Once A Self-deprecating Cult In A Hugely Successful Empire That Could Well Afford The Occasional Disaster: The Charge Of The Light Brigade, Or Franklin Lost In The Arctic. Now Failure Is No Longer Heroic--it Is Just Failure, And Its Terrible Costs Will Be Paid By The Most Vulnerable Of Brexit's Supporters, And By Those Who May Suffer The Consequences Of A Hard Border In Ireland And The Breakdown Of A Fragile Peace.--page 2 Of Cover. Fintan O'toole. An Apollo Book. Includes Bibliographical References (pages 203-217).