Out – and not proud

‘Many people are mourning,’ said Sam West on a BBC panel show discussing the response of the arts world to Brexit. According to West’s figures, ‘96 per cent of those polled were for Remain. Collaboration and connection are our bread and butter.’ The atmosphere of bitterness and anger was palpable at the Edinburgh Festival.

I spent four days immersed in comedy shows and I heard only one pro-Brexit gag. The excellent Geoff Norcott said he was puzzled to meet Remainers who told him the result had been swung by ‘thick’ Leave voters. ‘Thick?’ he said. ‘The Remain campaign waited until after 23 June to stage their street protest.’

Lloyd Evans and Igor Toronyi-Lalic on luvvie anger over Brexit:

Every other comedian regretted the experiment. A Swede called it ‘madness’. An American said ‘Brexit’ and mimed blowing his brains out. Andy Zaltzman, an admirable satirist in many ways, teased his fans by telling them he’d voted Leave because Brexit would be better for business. And he delivered one of the best lines of the fringe: ‘Jeremy Corbyn campaigned for Remain with all the ferocity of a cornered blancmange.’ He asked the crowd who was ‘to blame’ (not ‘to thank’ of course) for the result, and he drew some revealing views. Cameron, Boris and Gove all got a name-check. But no one gave the correct answer: democracy. One disgruntled Remainer said it was the fault of ‘the British people. They can’t be trusted.’ I saw a depressed public-school comedian, whose name I needn’t reveal, capture the pleb-hating mood with unwitting eloquence. His life, he told us, had been a severe ordeal. Having been forced to endure a boarding-school education, he’d been saddled with a university degree in maths. He was now pursuing an unhappy career as a private tutor while living in the poverty-stricken township of Ladbroke Grove.