Fruit keep ripening after being picked; Voters keep learning after being consulted in referendum

By George ILIEV
Brexit Metaphor No 94. 

When you pick a fruit from the tree, this is a "no turning back" moment: you cannot re-attach the fruit back to the tree. Similarly, when you offer the people of a country a referendum on an issue, it looks like this will be a "no turning back" moment, whatever the outcome.

Yet, some types of fruit (bananas, apples, peaches) keep ripening after they have been detached from the branch. In the same way some people keep learning more about the issue put to referendum for months and years after the vote took place.

Since the 2016 EU referendum, many "Leave" voters who chose to engage with reality and learn more about the EU have changed their mind and would now vote "Remain". Shouldn't they be entitled to be given a voice again, or are they expected to just "go bananas"?

Bananas (Source: Wikipedia)

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Notes:
1. Timeline: This article is part of a series of original #BrexitMetaphors published daily. A total of 94 have been posted so far and another 67 Brexit Metaphors will be published every day until the planned Brexit date of March 29, 2019.
2. Disclosure: The author has a master's degree in European Integration. He also thinks he knows a bit about business, economics, entrepreneurship, China, history, geography, nature, science and Rubik Cubes.
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Brexit is a cashew nut: a misnamed seed of emotion

By George ILIEV
Brexit Metaphor No 62

If the apple gave rise to original sin, a cashew apple may have given rise to Brexit: the original sin of British "emotion politics".

Britain does not grow cashews, a tropical fruit from Brazil. Yet, Brexit very much resembles the cashew.

The cashew nut comes from the cashew apple. Botanically the cashew nut is not a real nut but rather a fruit seed, and the cashew apple is not a real apple but rather a drupe (a fleshy fruit with a stone). So there seems to be some disconnect between the description and the facts of biological reality. On the other hand, the disconnect with political and economic reality is visible in the Brexit process: neither is Brexit a solution to Britain's issues, nor is the EU the source of the problem.

The analogy, however, does not stop here. The strangest thing about the cashew nut (seed) is that it grows not inside but outside the fruit. This is why the botanical name of the cashew is Anacardium (Greek for "the heart is out"). And this perfectly describes Brexit: people poured their heart out in the 2016 referendum, as hostility to globalisation and the discontent with the slow recovery from the 2008 financial crisis took their toll in the 2016 referendum. When emotions boiled over and triumphed over the facts, the seed of dissatisfaction emerged from the fruit as a Brexit "nut". 

Is it a surprise then that Brexiteer politicians all look and sound a bit nutty?

Cashew apples and nuts (Source: Wikipedia)

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Notes:
1. Timeline: This article is part of a daily #BrexitMetaphors series, with 99 more Brexit Metaphors to follow until Brexit day, March 29, 2019.
2. Disclosure: The author has a master's degree in European Integration.
3. Invitation: If you'd like to contribute to the debate, you are welcome to leave a comment below.