The Australian view on Brexit: ‘What’s in it for us?’

Australians have had their fair share of political turbulence in recent years but, as Nick D Miller explains in a new book ,'Do They Mean Us?', many Down Under simply cannot understand Britain's act of self-sabotage

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison favours a quick post-Brexit trade deal with the UK (AP)

In Liverpool, a month or so after the Brexit referendum vote, I tried that old foreign correspondent standby: interrogate a taxi driver.

“How did you vote?” I asked. “Brexit, no question,” he said, emphatically, with a challenge implicit in his voice. “Why?” I replied. He told me he had once picked up a distressed woman from a nightclub, late at night, and she told him she had just been sexually assaulted by a north African immigrant.

After taking a few moments to digest this, I asked the obvious question: “But what’s that got to do with Brexit?” He had barely begun answering before he accidentally drove through a red light, triggering a camera flash. This was going to cost him.