To blame Have I Got News For You for the mess we’re currently in?

[BertrandRussell]

None of this would have happened if Johnston, Farage and Rees-Mogg hadn’t been invited on and been allowed to present themselves as “good sports”.

I blame The Simpsons for Donald Trump being president.

How rude to say everyone who voted to leave was a thick ignorant oik. I know people from both sides who are perfectly intelligent and also people from both sides who are thick ignorant oiks.

I think the unrelenting EU bashing from The Daily Telegraph, including BJohnson’s weekly column has a lot to answer for. It certainly brain washed my parents and all their leave voting, middle class, comfortably wealthy, (second home in France) friends.

It's immigration from outside the EU that is the problem for me, once in they can go anywhere. Integration and multiculturalism have failed outside of major cities where a younger cosmopolitan type do integrate well. You can see this in census data. None of it was voted for and now people are angry about it. Same all over Europe, another major country will elect a nationalist govt soon and they will leave too.

Part of the problem is that instead of most of the voting population going out and voting for someone capable of doing the job, people used those votes to protest and voted for people like Farage who get paid lots of money to complain about their job rather than doing it.

Yes, yes, yes and a bit more yes

We used to listen to politicians and laugh at comedians, now it's the other way round.

The ancient Greeks believed in 3 graces - traits that demonstrated you were blessed by the Gods. These were Charis, Kalios, and Kudos.

Charis is where we derive the word charisma - that sort of magentic personality
Kudos describes personal talent or tendancy towards success in your endeavours
Kalios depicts physical beauty

In many ways we haven't moved on from any of this, it's just under the radar.
Some of those politicians may appear to be caricatures (or at least portray this on-screen); but there are many out there who enjoy the joke and want to keep it running. The publicity is their oxygen.

Democracy...yeah...great.

People hold a variety of views and just because someone thinks differently to you doesn’t mean that they don’t understand or are stupid.

It's not difference of opinion that shows many Leave voters to be stupid, (even the intelligent ones) but the fact that when questioned their ideas don't add up, are based on false assumptions and outright delusions.

It is also a vote demographically linked to lower levels of education, skills and employment.

Well I blame Jeremy Corbyn. For absolutely everything. Weather? Corbyn. EU (both lots) faffery? Corbyn. Traffic jams? Corbyn. Everything. Shame on you Jezza.

As per the OP. HIGNFY could be said to have made Boris, but he's so attention seeking he'd have hijacked the limelight anyway.

Shambu

Do you think that the millions of Europeans who also want out the EU are stupid ?

Woe betide the UK if after it has left the rest of the EU see their woes as being caused by the UK. The EU is being forced to pay billions for this fuck up and you won't need many of the right wing 'thug' parties, encouraged by murky sources for them to want to actually punish the UK.
The Gilet Jaunes, well the ones that have been influenced externally, have caused over a Billion pounds worth of damage in France and the disruption to trade somewhere near 10 Billion. The 'influences' on the GJ in France are traceable back to the roots of the illegal funding of the vote leave campaigns. The UK needs to tread very carefully.
With regard to HIGNFY, it is a comedy show but if you are attempting to 'blame' it for anything you need to look at yourself.

Oh, I forgot. I also blame satire. Let's ban it.

a) there aren't 'millions' of them that's a British tabloid myth and b) yeah.

"It's immigration from outside the EU that is the problem for me, once in they can go anywhere"

This is true in reality - the Brexit vote was an anti-immigrant/anti-cosmopolitan vote. The fact that Brexit doesn't affect this non-EU immigration is not really the point, but more a statement that people in less fashionable areas are not happy with the social change they see.

Saying 'Brexit won't help you' doesn't really change the feelings that led to all these places voting in huge numbers to leave - people registered their dislike of a system with the 'Change' vote.

Allowing Boris to be perceived as 'hilarious' is where this started

Abso-bloody-bleedin'-lutely this!

Can you count Shambu ?

How many Dutch voted for PVV alone last year ?

The leaver = ignorant oik image persists because that was a core part of the leave campaign's target demographic. Farage and his pint, the bus slogans, the xenophobia.
I know people who got all uppity about the immigration issue, but when pushed could not identify any way in which they had personally been effected. The best they ever got was GP appointments can be hard to get (but admitted mostly that's because they shut two local clinics). And that's without opening the horror story that is the pensions bomb.
The economic arguments never stacked up, but really, it's just guesswork on either side.
There is a legitimate argument around sovereignty and democracy; but the really issue should be what is decided and how (not the who).

So, there was plenty for the leave campaign to discuss on a higher intellectual level. But we didn't get that, so, oiks.....

"Well I blame Jeremy Corbyn. For absolutely everything. Weather? Corbyn. EU (both lots) faffery? Corbyn. Traffic jams? Corbyn. Everything. Shame on you Jezza."

Not far wrong, he hates the EU and is an unelectable buffoon. If Labour had a more credible leader then:

(a) the Tories would not have called the wreck election last year, and May would have been in a stronger position in negotiations with Europe
(b) the Labour party now would be a credible coherent Remain alternative to take over from the current shambles.

As it is we have Brexshit with some some sort of mess limping through thanks to Corbyn's uselessness.

But most of my vitriol is reserved for “Call me Dave”. The bar for constitutional change should have been set at 66% not 50. Wanker.

Well said!

{Do you think that the millions of Europeans who also want out the EU are stupid ?}
Even Marine le Pen's party don't really want out of the EU because they know which side of the bread is buttered. Many people moan continually but action is what would be needed.
If the EU were to fall it would be a toss up between Russia or the USA as to who would fight over it. China just buys power and influence and many countries, including the USA 'owe' a hell of a lot to China.

I also blame satire. Let's ban it.

We need satire. We need intelligent people who can tear apart the nonsense of our society in a hard-hitting but relatable way. However, there’s a line, and turning dangerous men into teddy bears has undeniably caused issues.

Sometimes, there are no words . . .

Agree that turning these dangerous men who know exactly what they are doing, into buffoon characters, has helped lead us to where we are now. And I don't believe Trump would be president without The Apprentice.
You could see Boris was a very dangerous man for a long time underneath the act. I suspect he is a psychopath.

I blame remainers who assume everyone who voted leave is a “thick ignorant oik”.

I have some agreement. I voted remain but was really frustrated at the remain comapaign and the media (BBC I am looking at you) for basically running with what amounted to "vote leave or you are racist".

In doing so they effectively said 'there is no debate to be had about the shape of our membership in the EU' and pushed people who were not totally 'leave' but uncomfortable with some aspects of EU membership to vote leave or accept nothing would change.

The remain campaign was SO bad I still wonder if it was not deliberately botched...