There’s a famous and controversial scene in the film Fight Club where Brad Pitt’s character, Tyler, briefly threatens to kill a grocery clerk and then lets him go, ‘’granting’’ him the gift of life. It played to a wide variety of reactions among audiences. Some loved it: the clerk had been shocked out of a life that he didn’t want, and thanks to Tyler’s unorthodox methods could lead one of clarity and purpose. Others felt that two bad things had happened to the unfortunate clerk. He had been held hostage in a car park, probably giving him PTSD, and then had to endure a lecture from his pompous assailant.
I was reminded this week of Tyler’s speech to the clerk, Raymond K Hessel, when Rishi Sunak announced two pieces of good news. The first was that as a result of a deal he has cut with the EU, Northern Ireland would have the “unique” advantage of having access to both the UK home market and the EU single market — an “unbelievably special” position which made it “the world’s most exciting economic zone!” Or, in other words, Northern Ireland has what the UK once had, before Brexit.
