A Modern Parable

Here’s another heart-warming childrens’ tale for the little‘uns (Any similarities with Brexit are purely coincidental)

A long time ago, in a town far far away, lived a man. He owned a small burgundy car. It was his most prized possession. Sure, it wasn’t the best looking, the fastest or the most practical. But it was his, and he was proud of it. 

Time was not kind to his small burgundy car. Although he loved it, he did not take good care of it, and some of the parts needed to be replaced. Every time he took the car to the garage, they would say to him “We’d love to be able to fix this for you, but we can’t. It’s probably those few new parts, they don’t work well with your type of car. And there’s all these regulations you have to comply with when fixing cars. Our hands are tied”.

And instead of fixing it for him, they would send him away, chuckling to themselves “What’s the point of fixing it?” they’d say “He pays us anyway. Let’s just do the minimum we can get away with. Whatever we do he seems to keep coming back to us. Eventually he’ll get so annoyed, he’ll buy a different car off us. It’s a win-win”

Just as they predicted, after years of sending him adverts for different cars, the man decided it was time for a change. And instead of blaming the garage for not fixing his car, he blamed the few new parts that were actually keeping his car running, and the non-existent regulations. 

Spluttering up to the garage in his old car, he pointed to a shiny blue one in a glossy brochure. “I want this one” he announced.

When driving through the village in his new car, his neighbours would say to him “Why did you get a new car? Why didn’t you just get them to fix the old one?” and he would get angry. When they asked “Were you really expecting it to only have three wheels?” he snapped back “Of course”. When they asked “Are you paying more for the service contract now?” he just drove off without replying.

And within a week, he was back in the garage, while the mechanics shook their heads saying “If only there was some way we could help”