Notes from the asylum

Yesterday Brexiteers demonstrated outside a Parliament busy ‘betraying’ them by rejecting Theresa May’s deal for the third time. A journalist asked people what motivated them to attend. ‘ “I am here fighting for freedom,” said one man from Hampshire. A no-deal Brexit might well lead to economic hardship but “freedom is more important than economics” ’ Freedom to do what, one might ask.

   While the demonstration was taking place, ‘thousands of passengers had their travel plans thrown into chaos after Eurostar cancelled all services to and from St Pancras when a trespasser was caught brandishing a St George’s flag. The 44-year-old spent the night on the roof of a tunnel leading away from the central London station, bringing Eurostar services to a halt before he was arrested by police on Saturday morning. One of those affected described to a journalist how she was left hundreds of pounds out of pocket by the cancellations. She’d organised a weekend break for her mother in Lille, France, but the pair were eventually forced to scrap their plans. They spent four hours waiting in a lounge at St Pancras on Friday evening before finding out their train had been cancelled.  She and her mother had to spend £125 for a hotel in the capital before rising with just three hours’ sleep for a rebooked train, only to find out they could not travel on Saturday morning either because of further cancellations. Although she had already spent £450 for accommodation in Lille, she and her mother were forced to scrap their plans to go to the continent and are going to spend the weekend in Brighton instead.’ 
   So one man demonstrates his support for ‘freedom’  by causing thousands of others to lose a great deal of time and money and their freedom to travel to their chosen destinations. Replace the man on the roof exercising his freedom to behave like a moron with David Cameron, and thousands of people with sixty million, and you’ve got our present situation in a nutshell.