British politics often resembles a bunch of poshos having a bun-fight while ordinary people live with the consequences. Never was that truer than in the case of Brexit – the comedy that keeps on giving, the debacle that keeps on taking.A full decade on from the UK’s fateful vote to leave the EU, the story is revisited by Norma Percy in Brexit: A Very British Civil War - Part One (BBC One, Monday, 9pm), a two-part documentary that – to quote Bono – will make you think, “tonight thank God it’s them instead of you”. If nothing else, it achieves the remarkable feat of making you grateful for parish-pump Irish politics and “only in Ireland” characters such as the Healy-Raes.It is fashionable to decry Ireland’s “all politics is local” system and the perception that public representatives are elected to the Dáil not on the basis of any particular philosophy but rather on whether they’ve fixed the roads and so forth. But look at the alternative as sketched out in this ghastly portrait of Britain’s ruling classes. What a rogues’ gallery it is – from the perma-smirking Boris Johnson to the aloof former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, a man who cycled in his sandals while Rome figuratively burned.Nobody interviewed has anything at all to say about the benefits of Brexit. Not even Johnson has the energy for such a pretence today. Instead, they look back on the Leave campaign as a bit of a grand lark.Johnson remembers photographers decamping outside his house and a tense exchange with pro-Remain Conservative leader David Cameron over his old school pal’s decision to back the Leave side. One of then UKIP leader Nigel Farage’s advisers, meanwhile, half-attempts a stereotypical Irish accent when recalling the intervention of Bob Geldof, who ambushed Farage by boat as the politician was steaming towards Westminster with a flotilla of disgruntled fishermen.Ireland is mentioned in passing in the second episode as the documentary briefly touches on the intervention of Tony Blair and John Major – serious politicians from a more serious time – and their warning that sealing the UK off from Europe would threaten hard-won peace in Northern Ireland. This was met with derisive indifference from many on the Leave side, who in general approached Brexit as a jolly jape. There was none jollier than Johnson, who stays on brand by declining to comb his hair for his conversation with Percy. But under the pratfalling was a thread of seriousness, recalls his sister Rachel. Johnson, she remembers, was irked that Cameron had become prime minister before him. “The fact that Dave became PM first, even though he was two years younger, I think really riled Boris. He thought that it was his turn to be world king before it was David Cameron’s.”[ BackStory on RTÉ One: ‘Some people would tell me I’m absolutely not Irish... I feel less accepted’Opens in new window ]He had his wish in the end, and while he says here that he would have taken up residence in No 10 with or without Brexit, he was clearly the winner from this bizarre power play. The losers, of course, are ordinary Britons who have seen their economy stagnate. But nobody in this documentary seems to have given them a moment’s thought.Brexit: A Very British Civil War – Part Two airs on BBC Two next Monday, June 15th at 9pm. Also available on BBC iPlayer