NOW WE’VE SEEN IT ALL: Analyst compares Brexit to a sheepdog voting itself out of the herding group

Old English Sheepdog family reunion.Flickr/David Martyn Hunt

This might be the best piece of Brexit analysis yet.

In a note to clients published Thursday, Bernstein analyst Michael Parker and team give a great analogy to explain how much sense the UK voting to leave the EU makes.

Comparing the UK to sheepdogs, Parker and team argue that even if all sheepdogs held a vote to decide whether they wanted to be members of the herding group, they’d still be herding dogs regardless of the outcome.

So while the UK has voted to begin the process to exit the EU, Britons are still very much Europeans.

Here’s Parker (emphasis mine):

“You have by now heard every interpretation of why the Brexit vote went the way that it went. For anyone living outside of the UK, the news on Friday that Britain had voted to no longer be part of the EU made as much sense as would an announcement that sheep dogs had voted to no longer be part of the Herding group (although they would like to retain their role as lovable family pets and reserve the right to occasionally chase sheep).

“For anyone living outside of the UK, the first reaction to the Brexit vote is the same in either contingency: how can sheep dogs be so confused about their true nature, and who was foolish enough to give them the vote? For anyone living inside of the UK – needless to say – the reactions are far more nuanced. That reaction has largely combined bewilderment with a touch of regret and, in political circles, more than a little opportunism.”

And so during a week in which “Br-” was attached to any word that would almost sort of work (“Brangover,” “Brapocalypse,” “Bramaggeddon,” “Brelax,” “Brelief rally,” “Brounce,” “Broptimism,” and so on) comparing the UK’s vote to the hypothetical decision from an entire breed of dog to reject its nature is the most creative piece of commentary we’ve seen.

In actual Brexit-related news on Thursday, Boris Johnson, the former mayor of London and a major voice of the Leave campaign who many thought could be the next prime minister, said he would not seek to become the next Conservative leader. The read here is that Johnson will likely not be the next prime minister.