The Brexit Casino

The Brexit casino never shuts. Lights blazing, slogans plastered across the walls, and a familiar voice on the tannoy promising the big win is just around the corner. The punters shuffle forward with their last few chips, convinced this time the wheel will spin their way. They’ve already blown their savings on sunlit uplands, the “easiest deal in history”, and border control that never quite materialised. But still they queue, eyes glazed, ready to be fleeced again.

It would be funny if it weren’t so tragic. This is the psychology of the scam victim who can’t admit they’ve been had. To face that truth would mean facing the humiliation of being duped, of cheering while the conman pocketed their pride. So they double down. They tell themselves it hasn’t been “done properly”, as if incompetence explains away the fraud.

Brexit wasn’t just sold as a policy. It was packaged as patriotism. A moral crusade. To admit failure now would feel like betraying their tribe, even themselves. Far easier to keep the lie alive than to look in the mirror.

And of course there’s the sunk cost. They’ve spent years arguing, voting, defending the indefensible. Walking away would mean admitting all of that was wasted. Like gamblers chasing their losses, they keep piling on, waiting for the jackpot that never comes.

The casino knows how to keep them hooked. A cheap trade deal dressed up as a triumph. A bit of Brussels-bashing. A scrap of rhetoric about boats. Just enough of a flashing light to keep them playing.

Farage, the casino boss, doesn’t need to pay out. He only needs to keep the punters believing. Deportations by the hundred thousand, tax cuts with no funding, a country reborn overnight. The promises get wilder, the punters cheer louder, and the chips keep sliding his way.

This is the cruel logic of denial. Better to believe the next spin will turn it all around than to admit the whole thing was a con. And so they queue again, wallets lighter, slogans louder, waiting for salvation that never comes. The house always wins, and Britain is left poorer every time the wheel turns.