There is simply no subtlety to the UK’s adventures in self-parody these days. Take the so-called Festival of Brexit and the criticism levelled at this £120m deceased elephant by everyone from appalled auditors on the culture select committee to visitors who somehow didn’t enjoy being forced to sit through what they were being shown. Total fiasco, you say? Appalling waste of public money, you say? Completely different to what was promised, you say? Despite having been years in the planning, no one knew what it was actually supposed to look like, you say? The people who came up with it are blaming its failure on anyone but themselves, you say? I mean … I mourn the time when a metaphor stole imperceptibly into the British consciousness instead of grabbing it by the lapels, shaking it like a rag doll and head-butting it in the nose while screaming, “I AM A STONECOLD METAPHOR, OK PAL?”
If you were one of the 67 million-odd UK citizens who missed this event over the summer, the Festival of Brexit was formally rebranded as Unboxed, given the ominously woolly aim of celebrating “creativity in the UK”, and has been running all round the country since late spring with a series of events that were this week laid bare with hilarious dryness in a quite majestic article in the House magazine. Any connection with what was once feared to be a jingoistic-sounding idea was actively shunned by the various organisers, and in many cases heroically undermined. Unfortunately, a hugely successful national moment did not ensue.
