James O'Brien's Epic Polemic On The Brexit "Liars And Dopes"
11 February 2019, 11:22 | Updated: 11 February 2019, 11:27
This is James O'Brien's monologue on how media balance caused the "liars" and "dopes" to lead us to Brexit.
Starting from David Davis' claim that all trade agreements could roll over after Brexit - a statement he made a month before the EU referendum - James took aim at the people who have led us to this position.
Having asked who made the statement, some listeners responded that it could have been Bungle from Rainbow.
So James picked up, saying: "I am not suggesting Bungle would have been a Brexiter. Quite the opposite, Zippy would have been a Brexiter definitely, George and Bungle and Rod, Jane and Freddie and almost certainly Geoffrey would all have been Remainers. Zippy - Brexit all the way. I'm surprised he wasn't actually a Ukip candidate."
Having busted that myth, James moved on to Mr Davis, the former Brexit Secretary. He continued: "He has proven to be not just wrong, but dangerously and country-damagingly wrong. David Davis has been proven to have an understanding of the issues that is utterly, utterly wrong.
"I don't actually think he's one of the liars. I think he's one of the dopes.
"The same as he said we'd be in Berlin the day after, striking a new trade deal with Germany. Germany can't strike trade deals independently with non-EU countries. This is something that's so easy to understand that Theresa May only had to explain it to Donald Trump 13 times.
"David Davis didn't understand it and yet Theresa May made him Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union."
James then turned on media channels that insist on getting guests to balance truth with lies. He added: "If you turn on your radio and you hear someone afforded the same status as me who is lying to you, how are you supposed to know that he's lying?
"I show you evidence from 2016 that David Davis did not know what he was talking about and you think... ooh crikey. But then he turns up on Newsnight or Question Time and you think James must have got the wrong end of the stick.
"Jacob Rees-Mogg appears on this programme and essentially confirms that the only positive analysis of Brexit that he and his cronies go for involves the destruction of agriculture and industry.
"But he says it wasn't in context. The context was a Parliament Select Committee.
"You think he can't be a liar because he's got a column in the Daily Telegraph. No, he is. He's a complete liar. And that's how we've ended up where we've ended up."
