The absurd mental gymnastics people will do to to defend their own decisions never ceases to astound. In the ten weeks after the referendum vote we've all seen plenty of examples of Brexiters saying utterly ridiculous things to defend their position.
One of my favourites bits of Brexiter nonsense came when one rage-filled Brexiter furiously told me to "shut up" and "get over it" before explaining that Brexit had already happened, and that it was "great". There are actually people out there who are so ill-informed that they genuinely believe the UK fully quit the EU on the day of the referendum result!
If people are so misinformed that they actually believe that Brexit has actually happened, no wonder 37% of the electorate were naive enough to vote in favour of a chaotic unplanned Brexit and giving the Tory political establishment the green light to just make things up as they go along to suit the interests of their billionaire donors.
The Brexiters who think we've quit the EU already aren't really doing mental gymnastics though, they're just angry and confused that lots of people are still talking about a political thing that they don't want to have to think about any more.
Perhaps my favourite Brexiter display of mental contortionism was a response to one of my articles about how the Davis-Fox-Johnson Brexit squad are a bunch of charlatans who still don't have a Brexit plan even ten weeks after the vote. The Brexiter excuse was that the Tory Brexit squad haven't come up with a Brexit plan because they've been on holiday!
"How would you like to give up your holiday?" the furious Brexiter demanded, oblivious to the fact that millions (including me) worked through the entire summer without any kind of holiday whatever.
Even if it's traditional for the political class get a huge summer holiday under normal circumstances, goading the UK electorate into voting to quit the EU then immediately rushing off on holiday for ten weeks instead dealing with the consequences is completely unacceptable.
It was bad enough that these charlatans convinced the electorate into voting for Brexit when they knew perfectly well that they didn't have an actual plan of action in case it actually happened, but immediately disappearing on holiday for weeks and then after ten weeks presenting nothing but empty waffle (the Brexit Minister David Davis) and outright evasions (Theresa May) is extraordinary stuff.
However some Brexit supporters are actually trying to frame this shambles as if the Tories are the poor, unfairly-maligned, innocent victims in this scenario, who couldn't possibly have been expected to give up their summer jollies in order to come up with an actual plan to deal with the mess they've created!
One of the worst things about this Brexiter "but they were on holiday" excuse for the abject lack of a Brexit plan is the jealous contempt that hard-right Tory tribalists usually have for the long summer holidays teachers get (which is one of the few compensations for the long hours, relentless bureaucracy, ideological vandalism of the English education system, increasingly appalling working conditions, relatively low pay and Tory wage repression).
If you tried to explain that teachers deserve long summer holidays because they work really long hours during term-time they'd spit bile in your face because the right-wing tabloid press has brainwashed them into jealously hating teachers, but if you suggest that the Tories should have spent the summer actually coming up with the Brexit plan that they didn't bother to devise before their damned referendum, they spit bile again. "But our lords and masters have been on holiday" they cry. "How unfair to expect them to actually clean up their own mess"!
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