It hardly seems to be a week ago since Boris Johnson was clapping for carers and the NHS. Just yesterday, it was revealed that NHS workers would have to pay for car parking and Boris Johnson blamed care homes for COVID deaths. Lest we forget, it was Johnson who was sending COVID patients to care homes to infect vulnerable people, whilst supplies of PPE were “in transit” for several weeks according to Matt “Halfcock” Hancock.
In an exclusive interview I interviewed an ancillary NHS worker who answered the call for COVID staff. She had been running a business but saw the call for help and responded to it. Amongst the astonishing trail of events are the following revelations:
She was not paid AT ALL for several months, as management told her that the system was being sorted out.
During that time HR reviewed her job and re-classified it at a lower grade, thus her pay was adjusted accordingly.
Now that she has been paid, they have not paid for weekend working, as “the system has not been updated”.
She has been told that she will get the sack if she has a coffee break at work on her long shifts. As a diabetic, this presents other health risks.
I asked if these were the work of incompetent local management or deliberate policy decisions. She is of the view that it is the latter. I also asked if this was just down to her trust or whether it is widespread. She says she knows others in other trusts with the same treatment so she presumes it to be widespread.
Will Johnson take responsibility for unnecessary deaths?
She now wonders why she bothered. So do I. Whilst Boris Johnson was minting coins and bonging bells, he should have been listening to scientists and experts.
Take Back Control of Brexit Mayhem – click on the picture
We have a full feature in the Islington Gazette, part of the iconic Ham and High imprint – a cultural icon of North London, which remains alive and kicking under the “death of culture” under Brexit populism.
The journalist asked what should happen to Cummings now. Here was my full answer:
“Bearing in mind that Cummings wants the civil service to run more like a business, I suggest that he receive similar treatment from my expertise as a business consultant and leadership author. Let Cummings be subject to SMART objectives, long and short-term performance goals, critical success factors, milestones and a personal balanced scorecard. With monthly appraisals, mentoring, spot bonuses and awards for targets achieved and sackings for major transgressions of his job description. By these measures Cummings should already be down the job centre”.
Saturday 10 July 7 am at Stonehenge, then Salisbury, Blandford Forum, Dorchester (10 am), Bournemouth 12 ish, Poole, Weymouth, plus other stops on the way.
Sunday 11 July – Wiltshire, including Chippenham, Devizes, Cricklade, Swindon then Berkshire, London and Kent.
Tuesday 13 July – Medway in Kent from 2 pm onwards including Jools Holland’s place.
If you cannot attend in person, please support us via Go Fund Me.
Here are the highlights of our ongoing tour of Britain. Please support the tour via Bollocks to Brexit.
Last Saturday, we hit the Dorset coast. I counted some 82 conversations we had over the entire weekend. Somewhat astonishingly we only had two objections to our project in areas that were very “Brexity”. The roadside cafe owner on the A31 quipped “I thought you guys had given up”. I replied that whatever you thought of Brexit we had to keep on naming it for what it is. He nodded, although I sense he still wants his country back. But two objections from 82 conversations is not what our Government is telling us. COVID has changed people’s attitudes to Brexit and our core message that Corona crisis + Brexit disaster = Britastrophe was extremely well received in these Brexit voting areas. Time to think again.
From Portland to Poundbury – Only two out of 82 people still want Brexit
Somewhat more worryingly, the Lib Dems cancelled events we had put considerable time into at Chippenham and Cricklade. The committee had objected to our “Bollocks to Brexit” messaging. I was part of the group that originated this slogan on the street at No 10 Downing Street. It was subsequently popularised by Steve Bray at SODEM and then adopted as an official slogan by the Lib Dems. I seriously worry about their strategy if they are to worry about every small issue. The space in which they have to take a position gets smaller by the day. Ho hum.
On Sunday we visited Swindon for Europe with a great reception and a street performance of some of our songs, including “The Mogg Chorus” and “Brexit’s Comin’ ‘Ome” which nearly reached the UK Official Charts. They gained publicity from This is Wiltshire.
Mogg is one of the few who will gain from Brexit
Brexit Pathos as seen from the mind of the Brexit voter
One person still felt the need to defend Brexit. He has had nearly four years to do so, yet was unable to provide one save for the football metaphor of “WE WON, YOU LOST”. I do feel sorry for these people at times. Despite my football song, this is no game.
The favourite Brexiteer slogan was “Take Back Control”. No one promoted it more actively than Dominic Cummings, chief advisor to Boris Johnson. Now it is clear that he meant this control to be exercised by himself. Increasingly we see that he, not MPs, not ministers, not even the Prime Minister decides policy, or makes appointments and public statements. This Lord of No 10 has recruited a pack of advisors whom he has spread across Whitehall to ensure that his will is done. No laws or rules apply to him. The Prime Minister seems unwilling or unable to rein him in as he openly assumes the powers of a dictator, removing the checks and balances in his way.
Over the next weeks, we will examine Cummings’ record in detail and look into his intentions and motives.
WATCH THIS SPACE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THIS THREAT TO OUR DEMOCRACY. HELP US SMASH IT.
In our latest round up, we report on the tsunami of project reality stories on Brexit now starting to appear. Our extensive work on the street confirms that most Leavers are now extremely angry about being lied to. Leave voters now understand the toxic cocktail of Corona + Brexit on their lives and livelihoods. This is why our Government is spending another £1 billion telling us to “Get Ready for Brexit”. We’ve already spent similar sums of OUR taxes TWICE!
Phones 4 EU
Leave voters are astonished to learn that Brexit means they will have to:
Pay for private health insurance. In 2019 the average cost of private health insurance in the US was $20 576. This is why Boris Johnson uses the euphemism “Get Ready for Brexit”. “Get Ready for Death” does not trip off the tongue quite so well …
Pay additional phone roaming charges. The EU outlawed these charges. At the moment, phone companies have indicated that they will not reintroduce the charges, but, of course, everyone budgets are stretched, they will be allowed to do so and Brexit will provide them with the perfect excuse for reintroduction of roaming charges.
Register your pets for trips to European countries 4 months before travel. The EU Pet Passport will no longer apply.
Join us at Cats Against Brexit Mayhem – click the image to connect
Apply for work permits and visas. You may also need an IDP.
We have been warning of these effects for nearly four years. Our Tunbridge Wells correspondent sums it up well:
“If we insist on taking up a position like Belarus, we will be treated like Belarus” – Adrian Elkins-Daukes
If you are not sure of the rules, check the official advice on GOV.UK
Write to your MP Ask them to comment on these developments. Request that they resign if the Brexit travel promises are broken.
Nigel Farage’s Garage
This week, it was revealed that part of the garden of England will be converted into the largest lorry park in Europe, as part of desperate attempts to divert gridlocked traffic from the M20 and M2 after Brexit. This will produce a plethora of problems:
Only 2% of lorry drivers are certified to travel to the EU. This will lead to shortages in supply chains and other impacts. The Government has withdrawn its advice on what hauliers have to do under Brexit.
Michael Gove reported that the lorry park project is to cost £705 million or “one Johnson Jet paint job”. Much more importantly, the cost to businesses is estimated by HMRC at a staggering £20 billion per year.
New Brexit Currency : One Paint Job = One Billion
In order to maintain refrigeration for chilled food and pharmaceuticals, lorry drivers will be forced to run their engines, spewing diesel into the Kent countryside around Ashford, Canterbury, Thanet and the Cinque Ports. We face the difficult choice of food and life saving drug shortages or smog in East Kent with considerable impact on climate change.
Ashford Council were not consulted about these arrangements. This appears to have been done under a direct power and land grab from the council. Even Tory MP Damien Green has complained about the manner of the desperate changes.
Meanwhile, Manston airport is to be re-opened as a logistics and passenger terminal, long after a review concluded that it was too far away from London to be seriously considered. Desperate times call for desperate measures … this is clearly another Brexit unicorn.
Write to Damien Green to express your concerns about the devastation of the local area, the ludicrous waste of money and the impact on gridlock on Kent’s two main arteries.
James O’Brien was credited with the catch phrase Farage’s Garage – turns out that we coined the phrase over a year ago
Red tape replaced by Blue tape
One of the biggest proclaimed benefits of Brexit was the statement by Jacob Rees-Mogg that Brexit would result in the removal of a tsunami of red tape. It seems that Jacob was lying and we find that the red tape will be replaced by blue tape. We are not troubled by the colour of the tape, just that it exists. And it’s not just the hassle factor of 215 million customs declarations a year for individuals and businesses. The FT reported an additional cost of £7 billion EVERY year.
“If it’s good enough for India, it’s good enough for us” – Jacob Rees- Mogg
The changes at UK borders will cost £13 billion.
That’s £13 billion off business bottom lines and £13 billion on your cost of living as a consumer.
In case you have forgotten, we are doing Brexit to save £39 billion.
But we’ve already spent £200 billion on Brexit and counting.
Then there is the £20 billion and £7 billion pa to add in.
Imagine running your household budget in this way?
Write to your MP Ask for a business plan for Brexit at the “Net Present Value” (NPV) of the Brexit project. Ask how they plan to reimburse the net cost of Brexit per person at some £1500 per person per year and to articulate how this will be more than made up by a stream of personal benefits to you and your family.
Our writing is part of our overall ambition to restore trust and decency in politics. Please support our work at Go Fund Me.
Today we hit Leeds town centre at 11.00 at the Henry Moore Art Gallery – See the Yorkshire Evening Post:
Tomorrow, we go to Durham and Barnard Castle to get our eyes checked. We have written a special version of Old Durham Town to mark the occasion – see below
On Monday we head to Broughton at the Airbus factory, then Tarpoley and Rugby in the evening.
On Tuesday we are thinking about Worcester and Hereford, but need support to complete this journey
Hope to see you at one of these events.
Then we’re back on to building a viable opposition to encourage our politicians to show a little backbone.
“Magic Bus” by The Who from “Live at Leeds” seems to sum today rather well … Where is the £350 million every week for the NHS? Boris’ £3 billion is just 8 weeks of the promised support on the magic bus …
It’s great that some Remainers are still raging against Brexit. I am one of them, but I know some who are politely sighing and saying “ah well, it’s over, that’s Brexit done, we’ve left the EU, tut tut, what a shame, that’s the next fifty years and our children’s future gone, but hey we tried.”
So it was brilliant to join Leeds for Europe and Bradford for Europe in the Britastrophe Tour protest outside the Art Gallery in the centre of Leeds on Saturday. There were about fifty socially-distanced people there waving EU flags and banners, such as “109,000 Leeds Jobs at Risk from a No-Deal Brexit”. I held a placard reading “One Crisis at a Time” which I think is an excellent point – who needs the total uncertainty of Brexit on top of a global pandemic with the Government’s muddly messages that “there may be a second wave coming this winter” neatly contrasted with “it will all be over by Christmas!” Read the report by The Yorkshire Post – Britain’s most trusted newspaper.
We very much enjoyed listening to Peter Cook’s anti-Brexit songs – my favourite lyric was the rewrite of “Another Brick in the Wall” as “Another Prick in the Mall”. Afterwards we marched up The Headrow passing many people who were giving us a thumbs up and some police asking what it was about – though the banners, I felt, did give something of a hint.
Just one bloke decided to make what I think was supposed to be the noise of a sheep at us – which is interesting, since I consider any “sheep” to be the ones who have been mindlessly chanting “Get Brexit Done” and “Leave Means Leave” without knowing anything about what the results might be.
I live in Skipton and enjoyed meeting the Leeds for Europe people there – it was a well-organised and heartening event, and got a good write-up in the Yorkshire Post. It was good to know that there are other people who are not prepared to sit back and simply sigh as the destruction of Brexit slips through.
The Britastrophe Tour makes its final stops at Worcester St Andrew’s Spire (10.30) and Eastnor Castle (12.00) today. To those that have asked if we can visit them to give talks or musical performances with the Bollocks to Brexit Mini, the answer is yes, but the project needs support via “Let’s Re-Boot Britain“.
Oh yes, and where’s the Russia report? We accessed a secret copy below. Read the details …
It seems that Leave voters elected to “take back control” of the UK for the following reasons:
So an unelected technocrat could run the country (Dominic Cummings)?
So Russian oligarchs could infiltrate our institutions and spread communism through the country?
So that our NHS could be sold off? Yesterday Parliament voted against protecting the NHS from foreign control in case you missed this amidst stories of a 3 year old baby in a 3 month old baby’s skin.
Answers on a postcard please.
Today we take to Parliament to ask for Brexit to be suspended in the wake of Russian interference in elections and other matters. Be there, or write to your MP to ask them to do the same.
In March 2019, Parliament’s Intelligence Committee finished an investigation into Russian interference in British politics. Their report is controversial since the subject matter includes a major Russian operation in 2016 supporting Brexit, the flow of Russian money into British politics, particularly to the Tories. and the attendance of senior Tories, including Johnson and Dominic Cummings at events held by the ‘Conservative Friends of Russia’. This group was founded by Nabolin, a London based diplomat who has been linked to Russian foreign intelligence. Cummings also worked in Russia between 1994 and 1997, and may have met figures in Russian politics, intelligence and security.
Johnson prevented the Committee publishing its report before the General Election and then delayed renconvening it. No 10 worked hard to install a compliant stooge as chairman – former minister ‘Failing Grayling’, so-called for his many failures whilst in office. Despite their efforts, opposition MPs on the committee persuaded a Tory, Julian Lewis, former chair of the defence select committee, to take the chair instead. Johnson and Cummings reacted by expelling Lewis from the Tory party.
Lewis has lost no time in publishing the report. Johnson immediately rejected the committee’s call for an intelligence report into “potential interference in the EU referendum”, insisting the government had seen “no evidence” of such meddling. SNP committee member Stewart Hosie said there was no evidence because the government “did not want to know”. This is not surprising, given Johnson’s own Russian contacts and his need to support the flimsy credibility of the referendum. Rather than face the Russian threat, Tory governments placed party unity, and appeasing extremist Tory Brexiteers over the interests of Britain as a whole and the prosperity of its citizens. Meanwhile the Russian Ambassador, Alexander Yakovenko, returned to Moscow last year to be decorated by Putin. He is said to have remarked:
“We have crushed the British to the ground. They are on their knees and will not rise for a very long time.”
Write to your MP Call for Brexit to be suspended pending a full investigation into Russian involvement in the 2016 referendums and elections in general
