Brexit Is the Real World's Boaty McBoatface

I’d like to take you back to the Summer of 2016. A colossal vote had just been undertaken. A marvel of democracy and a saviour for the people’s voice. A clear majority that cannot be disputed.

Brexit? No: the naming of the Natural Environment Research Council’s £200 Million Arctic Vessel. Boaty McBoatface won the NERC’s online poll on name suggestions for the new Royal Research Ship; with an astonishing 90,000 lead over the runner up. However what was astonishing was the Council’s decision to revoke the decision and instead opt for the RRS Sir David Attenborough instead, a proposal that racked up a mere 10,000 votes.

What does this say about Britain? Arguably it shows how we still have our quintessential ridiculing sense of humour and an ingrained anti-establishment outlook that seeks to vilify the entitlement of professionals and instead opt for an utterly juvenile quip instead. It shows how the establishment are always more than happy to offer positions to their chums and ignore the masses. Perhaps it demonstrates how we simply do not care about polar research in the grand scheme of things: with an economy crumbling around us and a society decaying under relentlessly austere government, shovelling ice seems less necessary than it perhaps is.

This ties unavoidable parallels to the Brexit referendum. The population, lied to and misled from both the Remain and Leave camps, succumbed to a gut decision on something that really should not have been. Just like Boaty McBoatface, there was a serious information gap between those with the power and those they consulted. The RRS Sir David Attenborough has bespoke intelligent instruments that will, among other things, take samples and readings used to map a climate reconstruction in order to gauge the extent to which polar restructuring will damage the wider environment. Pretty big stuff that I can only pretend to understand. Similarly, Brexit is far more than immigration controls and the angle of the curve in a banana (which is discussed in a 56 page policy from 1993). EU law determines the disabled accessibility of everything from leisure activities to public transport, the General Data Protection Regulation—an EU directive— represents the new found necessity for data handling and the right to be forgotten; even the cleanliness of water is legislated on by the continent. All of these things have a very present, very positive and very important role in the continuation of our society and nation—just like polar research.

Of course Boaty McBoatface was merely a whimsical online poll, spurred on by an ex-BBC regional disc jock, with no real world intentions but to trivialise a £200 Million research ship, whereas the Brexit vote was an impassioned decision spurred on by a fluffy haired fool and his Beano character look-a-like pals. The day-to- day life of the vast majority of the country would not be in anyway hindered by the undoubtedly hilarious name of a research ship, similar to Brexit where the bulk of employers are more impacted by the currency fluctuation than the long term economic transition. Even with Theresa May’s Chequers negotiating position being dubbed as the worst of both worlds from both the Remain and Leave camps, the country is still unsure of what it really wants from Brexit. Sixty nine percent of the population thinks Brexit is going badly, according to YouGov; yet the same pollsters discovered that only 27 percent want to vote again: meaning political apathy with the whole situation has amounted to 42 percent of people preferring to embrace disaster and just march off the cliff with something they have conceded is going badly. If that is not ‘Peak Britishness’ I do not know what is.

If anything, this demonstrates a disconnect from the real world for swathes of the population. With self-employment shifting more and more into the commonality; online enterprise based on apps and eMarketplaces rivaling the old brigade, the control of employers and governments is dissipating. Perhaps the naming of the ship was more than a meme. Perhaps it was a call for help. A shout of desperation from the forgotten generation of app developers and artistic directors, who haven’t been touched by government ever since they crawled out of Shoreditch. This generation of government meddling escapees are likely the very same people who would vote for Boaty McBoatface: time on their hands, a cynical sense of humour and a sense of desertion. In fact I know this is this case. I—pitifully stereotypical wannabe writer, dabbling in film and other creative acts—voted for Boaty. Even better than that: I tweeted about it. You’re welcome.