Brexit III: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

brexit the playful fun name that's been given to a disaster he's like if you said an animal died of auto-erotic asphyxiation it's cute although when you think about the actual consequences it becomes quite sad it has now been two and a half years since Britain voted to leave the EU the long story short of it is there was a bus with the lie on its people made a massively consequential decision by a narrow margin and ever since the subject of the impending brexit has dominated every waking moment in British life it even comes up on reality shows like this one called love island what do you think about Breck sir but leaving the European Union as seriously don't have so like if you so it was to leave the EU so we welfare and like things we trade with would be cut down so does that mean we won't have any cheese doesn't it mean it would be odd to like go to like Spain and store shall be hard to go on holidays yeah I think so I love my holidays yeah ok so there's a lot to unpack there absolutely none of which is worth unpacking it's not coming over to help our friends move and finding all these boxes are labeled dead spiders for mommy yeah you could unpack that but it's probably better to just burn everything to the ground and never speak of it again the point is you cannot escape talk about brexit in the UK it's something brilliantly captured by a TV show they're called goggle box it's a show in Britain where you get to watch other people watch TV it's actually great trust me just eavesdrop on some British people watching the news why did David Cameron car referendum in the first place he should be in prison Britain want to have the cake and eat it they want to trade with the rest of the world but they'll also have the benefit of trading with Europe I am halfway through the 585 page withdrawal agreement oh it's like one of those monks I saw in Pusey Mary different day same old Mary I took Mike you swear I saw it on the mug I'm just quoting what I read on the mug okay here's something else I saw in a mug Mary it said this marriage is like a locomotive lying on my chest crushing my spirit to dust I'm just quoting what I saw at a Marc Barry don't blame me blame the mug people in Britain are completely exhausted by brexit talk and the crazy thing is it hasn't even happened yet although it has already had big effect on the British economy in the wake of the brexit vote the UK has become one of the worst performing economies in the g7 major companies like Nissan and Dyson are moving operations out of Britain and the pound has dropped by almost 14 percent and all of this will come to a head just 40 days from now on March 29th when the UK is set to officially leave the EU and it could be an absolute catastrophe because nothing is happening the way that was promised Britain was supposed to leave the EU in orderly stages first entering a transition period on March 29th during which it would negotiate its future relationship with the EU and then leave entirely and Prime Minister Theresa May has spent the last two years locking down the terms of that transition plan with the EU but when she presented this agreed-upon deal to Parliament this happened Theresa May suffers the biggest Commons defeat in history this was the moment the defeat was announced the eyes to the right 202 the nose to the left 432 what was that noise there that was the biggest college defeat in British history and they sounded like a middle school lunchroom we've just heard someone call to the principal's office Oh Teresa's in trouble now it's lovely we can't show that moment in the UK because of their stupid law banning parliamentary footage in comedy show so when this show airs there tomorrow night it will be replaced by a clip from a 1983 Chippendales exercise video instead with absolutely no explanation so this is what they will see this was the moment the defeat was announced that's what they'll get they'll be confused by it and it will be all their fault now the point is the defeat of Teresa Mays deal raised the specter of what many consider to be the worst case scenario here the UK dropping out of the EU next month with no transition plan in place it's the so-called No Deal scenario and the ramifications of that could be massive not just for the UK or the EU but for the entire world so tonight let's try and answer a few questions why don't people like Teresa Mays deal what happens if the UK leaves with no deal and could they just not do brexit at all and let's start with why parliament rejected her deal there's a lot of reasons that people don't like it but the biggest sticking point has to do with Northern Ireland and let me explain here you see the UK is actually four countries England Scotland Wales and Northern Ireland a Fab Four sort of like the Beatles I won't say who the Ringo is because that would be unfair to Wales now not that Northern Ireland shares a border with the Republic of Ireland and right now everything you see here is part of the EU so Goods and people can move freely between them but the whole point of brixon is for the UK to leave the EU and that could put a hard border across Ireland and that could be a big problem in a region that has been plagued by sectarian violence and I don't have time to get into the socio-political history of Ireland right now so feel free to google IRA bombings or Bloody Sunday or Daniel day-lewis is 1990s film output or do you know what do you know what I'll just let the cranberries sum it all up in about 10 seconds [Music] that's basically it tanks bombs guns absolutely no more than four cords you know Island now in the troubles thousands of people died businesses on the board that were regularly bombed and checkpoints became targets so removing them was a centerpiece to the historic Good Friday Agreement of 1998 which brought a fragile peace to the whole region returning to checkpoints in any way shape or form is going to re-inflate tensions as people who live there know somebody builds our customs pushed and the border between the north and southern ireland people will shut out and the shoot that the people who work in it that's absolutely 100% certainty Wow that is striking because normally for people to be that certain that something will be a disaster they need to see Will Smith in blue face so everyone here agrees there cannot be a hard border there again but how do you avoid that because if you are not in the EU goods have to be screened somewhere like you would at any international border and no one is yet come up with a plausible solution for this some including former foreign secretary an untitled Gary Busey project Boris Johnson have proposed elaborate work around including technologies that don't yet exist and custom screenings near but not at the border but Ireland is not remotely convinced by those and when journalists pushed Boris Johnson for more details on this his response did not inspire confidence nobody thinks it's a realistic plan because they don't think eyelid would accept the EU don't don't don't run away we want to ask you some serious questions because you've just done a load of interviews why don't you torch Anna for an answer answer a couple of questions you could this is absurd you ought to have a serious conversation about breakfast or then you ride on why can't you answer any serious questions I'll tell you why Boris can't answer any serious questions he doesn't have any answers in fact the only question he's ever capable of answering is what would it look like if Gordon Ramsay was tumble dried on high so so just in case no one comes up with a solution for this unfixable problem by the end of the transition period the EU and Teresa may agreed on something called a backstop now under it Northern Ireland would broadly live under EU rules and there would be a hard border between it and the rest of the UK and that would remain in effect until they came up with a permanent solution to the border problem a solution that remember does not exist the problem is brexit ears have strong reservations about the backstop and they want to resume to renegotiate it but the EU says that they are done negotiating leaving Britain hurtling towards the ever increasing possibility of leaving next month with no deal in place at all so what happens if there is no deal well first ironically there will be a hard border in Ireland the one thing that everyone agrees they don't want but the consequences would go much further than that because it won't just be the Irish border where there will be customs checks brand-new screenings will be required at every point of entry and at major British ports like Dover where trucks arrive on ferries that could mean chaos under No Deal breaks in World Trade Organization rules would kick in overnight meaning customs inspections on every vehicle by one estimate if customs delayed each truck by just seventy additional seconds the wait to board the ferry could reach six days yeah and that's a problem because the whole system is built on seamless movement introduce any hitch into that system and it all breaks down is like we in a supermarket checkout when one person brings a fruit that the cashier doesn't know hold on a second you are not trying to buy a dragon fruit at a Kroger at 6:00 p.m. on a rainy Sunday you get the outta here any personal goods will be particularly hearted by delays at ports as this flower importer will tell you if things get delayed as shipping gets delayed and we're trade and weed no no no flowers so you know we need free movements and it will affect us what's at stake for you if we don't get this right everything my family my house yeah we've been trading for 33 years yeah that's very sad because people do tend to want flowers now and alive although you might actually feel slightly less sorry for that man when you hear what he said next yeah we've been trading for 33 years and I did vote to leave do you regret that are definitely up second thoughts now but but when you voted leader do not think well this is gonna affect my family I didn't really think about it like that I didn't really think about the business side of it yeah well you probably should have done Samia and now you have pretty much yourself with a rusty piece of rebar which isn't offensive it's something I saw in a mug sell it's fine the math makes it okay Mary now look the selling prospect of a No Deal brexit has now become likely enough that the government has released over a hundred guidance documents instructing people about what to do if it does happen everything from how pesticides will be regulated to what the new procedures would be for taking your horse abroad although I think I can actually solve that one for you right now take off its shoes put it in a separate trade and look innocently confused when airport security starts asking whose horse this is and well some of what will happen in a No Deal scenario may go into the category of manageable annoyance there are some genuinely alarming issues like will there be a shortage of medication that comes from other countries that could affect someone like this girl with cerebral palsy and epilepsy she has three drugs that she has are critical and without them she will have multiple seizures in a day it's one of the biggest countries in the world financially and I'm sitting here thinking will I be able to get medicines in two months time it's a completely crazy situation yeah you're right about that because medicine shortages are not a problem that Britons expect to deal with they're used to having their problems limited to hearing Americans mispronounced the word vitamin not having enough beans as part of your breakfast and having to wait 20 years for another royal wedding how are you still single George settle down already you have this many find a fiancee crush - ferocious lead already frightening enough there are warnings of empty shelves and some Britons have begun stockpiling food or buying so-called brexit boxes which when you see what's actually inside them seems pretty grim they may look like tins of paint but they could be dinner alla brexit every brexit box contains all you need to whip up family favorites like chili con carne chicken tikka and even fajitas now putting aside how unappetizing a paint can of wet meat sounds let's also not overlook the metaphorical significance of every dish in the brexit box being something that came to Britain from another country and greatly improve the lives of everyone there now things look dire here under any form of brexit Britain's economic options are basically bad and worse the government's own analysis suggests that under a brexit like Teresa Mays plan the UK economy could be up to 3.9 percent smaller after 15 years which sounds bad until you learn that under a No Deal brexit we're looking at an economy as much as 9.3 percent smaller and a slowdown like that would not just hurt Britain it would ripple across the entire world and yet incredibly some in Britain remained completely unfazed by all this drawing confidence from the worst possible examples I lost a grandfather in the first world war I lost an uncle in the second world war and we survived you not a little bit concerned that we're talking about this political event the same way that we're talking about the aftermath of world wars no I'm not I think it's the same sort of situation but it isn't though is it because the world wars were provoked they were a response to outside events brexit is something that Britain has done to itself Britain is basically Pompey if Pompey had voted for the volcano a gas said the volcano would be good I believe the bus and a mug backed it up you trust mugs and this brings us to the final question here if all of this is going to be so bad could Britain just not do this to which the answer is technically yes in December the European Court of Justice ruled that the UK can simply revoke its intention to withdraw that is a big indication that Europe would take Britain back and an even bigger indication is the existence of the reunion boys a touch a Dutch group who described themselves as a boyband driven to reunite Great Britain with the EU and if you think if you think they didn't make a music video you clearly don't understand why I'm bringing this up [Music] [Music] don't I mean it's the classic boy baton formula isn't it you get five Eurotrash hunks you dress - like fisherman - like guys who run a VC firm and one like a Marxist guerrilla with a throat colds you put the one the world's greatest danke speech and you have them crooning different keys about the dissolution of a customs union it's just textbook look if I'm honest that clip does not make a completely airtight case for staying in the EU but the rap break certainly does we're British people know about us is that we all have spectacular abs look why not obviously amazing the Queen's are completely insane so why don't you take your little euros on four-pack and hit the gym pencil neck and while clearly that band is a pretty solid argument for leaving the EU on any terms necessary what if Britain did want to stay how would that even happen well Teresa may and Parliament could weigh the evidence and decide that brexit is not worth it that would be the truly courageous thing to do they won't do it because of the political backlash that they get for defying the popular will but that is that is why some have suggested a second referendum now that would not be easy first the shortest estimate of the time it would take to organize a vote is 22 weeks and there's just six weeks left and also what exactly would people vote on would it be remain in the EU versus tourism-based brexit or remain versus the No Deal brexit or do you put all three options on the ballot probably split the vote fail to get a clear majority for any option and somehow make this whole mess even worse because the reality is this situation is far too complex for an up-or-down referendum which by the way was also true of the first one when voters were just asked to leave or stay without a sense of what that might actually mean that the first referendum was a terrible idea because it was the government punting a difficult decision to the people which in the people's defense is not their job they elect politicians to make reasoned fact-based decisions on their behalf that's how representative democracy works and you know who could have told you all of this at the time the people of goggle box just watch them react to the referendum being announced in 2016 do you think everybody now is enough to be to be able to vote cause god that I know there must be other people like me this is what's worrying me I'm worried that people aren't on something that I don't really truly understand right that is an intelligent thing to say sometimes you don't know stuff so you hire someone else to know it for you if you came to your doctor with stomach pain and he said well what do you think should your appendix leave or remain you probably say don't ask me do your job look I of political courage at this point wouldn't be to call for a second referendum something that Theresa Mays already said that she won't do it will be to acknowledge that the first one was fatally flawed and that carrying it out will do long-term damage to the country and then canceling brexit altogether but it seems that there is no way that that's going to happen instead Britain seems determined to step firmly down upon the rake of history and suffer the consequences and I wish I could offer you a rousing Churchillian speech now about how everything's going to be okay but under the circumstances honestly the best I can offer you is this people of Britain throughout history we've faced our share of dark hours the Great War the Blitz and that time when Deborah accidentally used Howard's custard in her own trifle that's my question Oh No and through all this a stiff upper lip has prevailed because this country is not returning not when other countries have tried to destroy us and not when we're in the midst of trying to destroy ourselves and I know some are yelling Britain come back don't do this your purchase Lee yourselves and to them we say oh we have not even begun to ourselves we shall ourselves at the ports we shall ourselves in the shops result ourselves in the hospitals and in the fields wizard never surrender in the dust clears watts will remain Britain not the same britain certainly a worse one with a weaker economy possibly no fresh fruit and a great deal of confusion over how horses can go on holiday but written nonetheless once we've delivered this mortal wounds to ourselves we will savor the taste of victory the victory the case night mummy faith chicken fajitas [Applause]

Channel: LastWeekTonight

Views: 14,921,235

Keywords:

Id: HaBQfSAVt0s

Length: 21min 27sec (1287 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 17 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/langthwaiter]

“This video is not available in your country”

But it’s about my country!

[u/everadvancing]

After seeing that Love Island clip, I now want a roundtable/discussion type show where clueless people talk about current political situations.

[u/[deleted]]

That fucking guy with the flower shop. Brexiters are some baffling kind of breed.

[u/teleekom]

All will start to make more sense if you accept that Boris Johnson is just another one of Sasha Baron Cohen's characters.

[u/slexis]

"It's like the UK is Pompeii, but they voted for the volcano". Gold.

[u/genericepicmusic]

Was that ...Stephen Fry??

[u/scifiguy95]

I definitely miss when he would cover more obscure issues that I wouldn't have heard about otherwise. That being said, as a non-British person who remains confused by the whole thing, that was probably the best explanation of the current situation that I've heard.

Also his description of the Breunion boys was incredible.

[u/[deleted]]

[removed]

[u/Calcain]

Brexit III - As told by British man. Not available to watch in Britain