At the same time on Thursday as Liam Fox was giving his “Brexit means free trade” speech in Manchester town hall, being unveiled in Trafalgar Square was artist David Shrigley’s huge thumb – the symbol, according to the capital’s mayor, that London was open for business. What a happy coincidence. A giant thumbs-up neatly encapsulates the position of the Brexiteers. Don’t worry, they tell us, it’s all going to be fine.
We don’t know exactly where we’re going and won’t be offering a “running commentary” on the direction of travel, but the destination, wherever it is, is going to be marvellous. Nick Clegg called Dr Fox’s speech “delusional”, but of course he is now seen as an embittered remoaner. The giant thumb, which is seven metres high, cast in black bronze and entitled Really Good, would appear to back up Dr Fox’s Panglossian worldview. “Shrigley’s ambition is that this simple gesture will become a self-fulfilling prophecy; that things considered ‘bad’, such as the economy, the weather and society, will benefit from a change of consensus towards positivity,” says the pamphlet being handed out in Trafalgar Square. But don’t be fooled. Mr Shrigley is a satirist; the uncompromisingly phallic thumb is a manifest absurdity that rejoices in its own ugliness.
Though commissioned before Brexit, it has become a neat commentary on it. The clue is in the idea that the “consensus towards positivity” will even change the weather. Meanwhile, the police staged a crackdown on rough sleepers around Trafalgar Square and there were showers. Wishful thinking only gets you so far, as Dr Fox may soon discover.
