Monty Python star John Cleese has voiced his “delight” that the bleak prophecies of post-Brexit Britain have as yet failed to materialise.
The comedian, who is also a prominent supporter of pro-Leveson reform group Hacked Off, spoke shortly after the British pound suffered yet another mysterious collapse, sending it to its lowest value since Britain voted to leave the EU.
Speaking to the Radio Times, Cleese said: “I don’t think Brexit was a mistake, myself. I’m rather delighted that all these forecasts of doom and destruction have turned out, at this point, not to have been real.”
His comments come despite the fact Prime Minister Theresa May has not yet invoked Article 50, thus the process under which Britain will leave the EU has not yet been triggered. Despite the wobbly pound, the UK remains able to trade tariff-free across the 27 member states.
Last week a spoof piece in Private Eye containing faux quotes from the Office For National Statistics explaining Brexit had had little effect on the UK for the very fact that it continues to remain part of the EU until that occurs, went viral.
Twitter users cited the article as being “spot on”, with those opposed to the Leave vote stating it should be “stapled on the head of every numpty who said Brexit didn’t cause the UK economic harm.”
However, some economic movement has been to the contrary. UK retail sales increased by 1.4% in July after a 0.9% drop in June. And fears the referendum would trigger widespread job losses were not realised either, with the number of people claiming jobseeker’s allowance unexpectedly falling by 8,600 to 763,600 in July, despite expectations of a rise of 9,500.
Explaining why he voted Leave, Cleese continued: “I don’t want to be ruled by Brussels bureaucrats who want to create a super state. I was pro-Brexit for that reason.
“If I had three words to sum up why we had to get out of Europe, they would be: Jean-Claude Juncker. He’s a little jumped up Luxemb****r who’s never really had a proper job.”
Cleese, 76, has never minced his words when it comes to Juncker. In June he suggested the only way to reform the European Union was to kill the president of the European Commission.
“It should give up the Euro, introduce accountability and hang Jean-Claude Juncker,” he tweeted.
Of new Prime Minister Theresa May, Cleese remarked: “There’s something about her I quite like. She’s like Margaret Thatcher with a sense of humour.”
Thatcher famously mocked the Liberal Democrats’ logo using the Monty Python Dead Parrot Sketch at the Conservative Party Conference in 1990.
She told Tory delegates: “I gather that during the last few days there have been some ill-natured jokes about their new symbol, a bird of some kind, adopted by the Liberal Democrats at Blackpool.
“Politics is a serious business and one should not lower the tone unduly.
“So I will say only this of the Liberal Democrat symbol and of the party it symbolises - this is an ex-parrot.
“It is not merely stunned, it has ceased to be, expired and gone to meet its maker.
“It is a parrot no more. It has run down the curtain and joined the choir invisible. This is a late parrot. And now for something completely different.”
May has yet to incorporate any Monty Python sketches into her own leadership repertoire.
