Brexit cartoon book: humour in desperate times

Phil Vardon (UK, associate Professor in Geo-engineering, CEGS Faculty): “I’m certainly in the ‘Oh no’ camp. It seems like Brexit was a bad idea. The campaign and vote reinforced that it was a badly informed, bad idea. And the idea of a second referendum seems like a bad idea to fix a bad outcome of a bad idea. But at the same time it is like a tragic play, I kind of want it to keep going to see what happens next.”

Barry Fitzgerald (Ireland, researcher at 3mE Faculty): “The overall consensus from Ireland is that Brexit is a shockingly bad decision. I‘m from Limerick in the Republic of Ireland, which is a considerable distance from the border with Northern Ireland. However, over the past year or so, I have visited the towns and counties near the border where the people that I spoke to are deeply concerned. The return of military checkpoints on roads at the border would be a reminder of troublesome times past, while the possible cessation of free movement would be detrimental to many social and economic aspects of life on the island of Ireland. There has been a ‘clueless’ feel to the whole debacle and I think that’ll be the case for years to come.”

Stephen Picken (UK, Professor of Chemical Engineering, Faculty Applied Sciences): “Apart from the double meaning of period – which can indicate a monthly returning phenomenon – it also shows that there is a state of total panic. Nothing very organised is going on. The transitional period is a recurrent safe haven that doesn’t particularly want to go away, and indeed doesn’t solve much except temporarily sweeping issues under the carpet. Also, note it is an emergency exit from a warm building leading typically, via a depressing stairwell, into a windswept field where little happiness can be expected.”

All illustrations are from the book Brexit Cartoons book published by Penguin, 2018. More info on their website