I coined the phrase “Britastrophe” a while back to explain the toxic combination of Corona Crisis + Brexit Disaster. Today sees the launch of the song “Britastrophe” by “Mutant Algorithm”. Download the mini album with three tracks and a free ringtone here. Here’s the trailer video:
Please GIFT the song to MP’s – both to ConservativeMPs in order to persuade them to pull back from breaking international law and to Opposition MPs on all sides, to persuade them to grow a backbone and suspend Brexit in the wake of a Britastrophe.
Please send your gift with a personal message – a template is below for your use or adaptation. Personal messages work best.
Dear xxx,
I write to you with the gift of “Britastrophe”, a song which explains the toxic combination of Corona Crisis + Brexit Disaster. I ask you to exert your influence to suspend Brexit by voting against the UK Internal Markets Bill, currently passing through Parliament. The bill breaks international and domestic law and represents a new low point in our reputation as a great nation. Of course, your own reputation as an MP and that of your party goes hand in hand with this.
You will be aware that even Theresa May, Lord Howard, Sajid Javid, Norman Lamont, former Attorney General Geoffrey Cox QC and many others have raised serious objections to the bill as well as six former Prime Ministers on all sides of our politics from Sir John Major to Gordon Brown and even David Cameron. It has also gained international condemnation from world leaders across the globe, for its parallels with the 1933 Enabling Act. I need not remind you where that led. Our membership of the EU costs us 37 pence a day for 70+ years of peace and offers us opportunities for our children and country to be world leaders through the membership of the most successful experiment in collaboration on the planet. I write this letter as we learn that Kent is about to have a hard border in order to deliver Brexit chaos.
I ask you to restore trust and decency in politics and pull back from the brink of this Dominic Cummings inspired initiative. I am aware that MPs on all sides find the power grab by Cummings and Johnson extremely unacceptable with extremely worrying implications for democracy in the UK as Britain slides into a banana republic. Is that what you really want on your Wikipedia page as a legacy?
Corona Crisis + Brexit Disaster = a Britastrophe
Silence is complicit behaviour. Will you act to suspend Brexit before it’s too late?
Yours sincerely
Your name
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Some hard facts for those who are bored rigid by Brexit and want some quick insights into what’s coming over the hill for Christmas and the New Year. Click on the images for more insights into the issues raised.
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Write to your MP to demand a suspension of Brexit in the wake of Corona.
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At the moment, as we are still a member state of the EU, we abide legally to the rules of the EU. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is one law that the UK must abide by as a member state if it wishes to conduct business on the world stage. The law also regulates the transfer of personal data in and out of the EU and EEA areas.
In the event of a No Deal Brexit (and potentially any Brexit), the UK will have removed itself from all legal process in the EU, including the GDPR. The UK is perfectly happy for everyone to continue transferring personal data to the EU, because the EU is covered by the GDPR (and possibly because the government doesn’t care whether your data becomes public or not). However, the UK will have become a ‘Third Country’ in the eyes of the EU. We operate under the UK’s Data Protection Act… but also currently abide by GDPR. What has never been tested is whether our Data Protection Act is sufficient or ‘adequate’ on its own to protect personal data (of EU citizens) to the level that the GDPR covers privacy and personal data. The EU must protect the data of its member states.
Thus, this puts every organisation that stores and transfers data, into a legal quandary.
If companies operating in the EU or EU agencies transfer personal information to the UK, and the UK misuses or makes that data public, there is no legal action that can be taken against the UK. The ramifications are wide ranging and complex. Read on.
Organisations thus may choose to stop transferring any personal data to the UK until there is clarification on the legal process.
Whilst we are here, snitch on your MP for breaking international law. Use our snitching tool.
This is the ‘adequacy decision‘. Every ‘third country’ has to go through a review process to determine whether there is an adequate level of protection within the third country’s legal system that will protect the privacy of personal data. The last adequacy decision that I know about took over 1 year. And a recent EU-US privacy shield case fell through.
“If there’s a failure to agree on any data protection arrangements, UK organisations which receive personal data from the EU (and EU organisations transferring data to the UK) will need to ensure they have additional appropriate safeguards in place. For example, Standard Contractual Clauses or Binding Corporate Rules. This poses the risk that UK companies could potentially lose business to other companies across the EU.”
It’s kind of obvious really. We want to be alone, so we are alone.
Other than adequacy decisions, data can be transferred if certain standard contractual clauses (SCCs) are added to contracts to cover the protection of personal data. But these are being tested now (see below with Facebook throwing toys out of pram about pulling out of Europe – and perhaps vital to watch how this progresses …).
Examples of who should be concerned:
A hairdresser in Cheshire has a client database which it uses for bookings and marketing. It stores this database on its office computer. It has never sent any of its client data outside the UK and has no intention of doing so. The hairdresser does not need to consider this section on international transfers.
A hotel in Cornwall takes direct bookings from individuals across the EEA, which includes their names, addresses and other personal information. It receives personal data from those individuals and sends personal data back to them. Neither transfer is restricted under the GDPR nor UK GDPR, as it is made directly with a consumer. The hotel does not need to consider this section on international transfers.
However, if either business uses a cloud IT service which stores and/or processes their data (including personal data) anywhere outside the UK (including in the EEA), it should read this section on international transfers.
Boris Johnson announced that the UK would be pushing forth with world class data sharing … This is a swipe at EU GDPR and regulations. He mentioned very little about whether big data would or wouldn’t suddenly become public data. That’s a bit scary on its own. We know that Johnson and Cummings are planning a massive dig into private data with their proposed Verify Identity scheme … See 2019July 20209 Sep 2020 : National Data Strategyand Pandemic Data Sharing.
This is taken from Computer Weekly article:
1. You signed a petition to revoke Article 50 and remain in EU (data is kept on the e-petitions for 12 months with your contact details).
2. You signed a petition against proroguing Parliament.
Currently Whitehall doesn’t have access to Parliament e-petition systems and Parliament would NOT give Whitehall your personal details.
Once we leave the GDPR system … “it’s technically feasible. The only question is how far any prime minister or their government is willing to push the boundaries of political convention and legality to get access to all that data.” Editor’s note : We know that the Government is willing to break international law so anything is possible.
So, hypothetically, you may receive an email … “You signed a petition to revoke Article 50 and remain in the EU… here’s how Brexit will serve you ….” (or worse).
What does it all mean? Whilst it’s hard to know what will actually happen or what individual organisations will do, here’s what we should be aware of …
DropBox stores your data on German servers.
Zoom recordings could be stored on German servers. Facebook information in Ireland.
It is unclear as to what extent Google Education servers, Spotify etc. are affected.
Oliver Slay has worked in IT for over 20 years (with 8 years at management level). He is a Member of the Institution of Analysts and Programmers (MIAP for 13 yrs) and currently a PhD student in Bioinformatics/Genomics at Sheffield Hallam University. His views may not represent those of these organisations.
Early image of Kent Border Patrols
Useful additional reading
Brexit No Deal Data Protection Guide This contains up-to-date Government advice.. (which may have limited information in a constantly changing and backtracking environment).
“If the EU has not made an adequacy decision in respect of the UK before the end of the transition period, you should act if you want to ensure you can continue to receive personal data from EU/EEA countries in the future. The ICO also provides more detailed guidance on what actions might be necessary.”
Any Person or Business, processing personal data concerning EU persons has to do so according to the EU’s GDPR Law.
GDPR is different to the Data Protection Act (and in my opinion, much stricter; particularly as it covers all data, not just data held on a computer).
“All Data” includes Video Images, Voice recordings, telephone answer messages; as well as the usual web-site registrations, blogs and log-ins.
Leaving the EU does not absolve one of this responsibility, as it falls under the authority of “International Public Common Law”
It therefore does not matter if the EU person is living or visiting here or elsewhere; nor does it matter if they don’t have full EU Citizen’s rights..
It is not permitted to do independent analysis of personal data about EU persons, gathered by any EU based, or other organisation.
Even if one processes personal data (or works on such systems) on behalf of an EU based entity; one has to have a Branch Office inside the EU.
This rules out a lot of business prospects for data processing, campaign management, and marketing organizations; and completely eliminates the independent free-lancer from the data market (or knowledge industry as it is also known).
The independent free-lancer or invisible service provider makes up a sizeable part of our trade with the EU. – If there are about 3 Million going each way, and earning say €66,666 p.a. each – that’s a €200,000,000,000 trade (only a proportion of which work in remote data, the rest are dependent on Freedom of Movement, or the Right to Establishment in order to ply their trade).
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In case of doubt, here are some real headlines from the Daily Mail for comparison purposes:
And, just in case you were sleeping, Brexit Reich negotiator David Frost has conceded that Britain will not be able to brand car parts made in other countries as being British to evade taxation and tariffs. It’s kind of obvious really. Just why have we been told lies for so long?
Write to your MP. Demand a suspension of Brexit in the wake of Corona.
If you like this article, please support us with a regular donation via GoFundMe or Patreon. Give us a tip viaPaypal.We need support to continue doing this. It takes considerable time. Thank you in advance.
In this update we look at the latest facts about the economics of Brexit. The popular view is that COVID is the great destroyer of the economy. Think again and read on. The report by LSE shows that Brexit offers a much greater and more sustained shock to our economy than COVID. It also compares No Deal and what might be expected as a Brexit deal and finds no great differences in terms of the long term damage.
In the wake of the 2019 General Election result, there appears to have been a great deal of conciliation and accommodation by Remainers, in terms of the acceptance of some form of Brexit and accepting the illusion that an 80 seat majority is invincible. Yet, as the figures demonstrate, all forms of Brexit are toxic, in terms of their long term and sustainable damage to the United Kingdom. If you feel worn down by 4 years of Brexit boredom, I, above many understand this, having fought full time for several years on this topic. It does not alter the hard fact that Brexit is a shitstorm that we may still avoid, if political will is there or can be created.
The difference between a Brexit Deal and No Deal is really the difference between a slow painful death and a sudden death.
Read up on why Rejoining may be a unicorn in the long term at Fool Britannia.
Write to your MP using these facts to help you compose your letter.
Boiling Frog Blues
If you still feel that Corona is more significant than Brexit you may well be experiencing what psychologists call recency bias. This is the reason why we think that air disasters are a regular occurrence after a significant airplane crash occurs.
Speaking analytically, Corona is merely a crisis, whereas Brexit is a disaster in slow motion. We tend to confuse the two because what is called the boiled frog syndrome. The LSE report shows clearly that Brexit offers a much greater existential risk to Britain. The question remains:
How quickly and how badly to you want to die?
Brexona – Combined effect
An accountant will teach you about the concept of avoidable costs. We must endure Corona as a natural phenomenon. We don’t have to add Brexit to Corona. Combination of 11% GDP loss from Corona and a 5-8% loss from Brexit will be catastrophic. In case of doubt it only took a 3.5% GDP loss to create the 2008 Crash.
“Corona Crisis + Brexit Disaster = Britastrophe”
Ground Control to Boris J
Brexit has already cost us more than The International Space Station (ISS). Brexit is set to cost £200 BILLION by the end of 2020. An ISS costs a mere £115 billion. In case the figures are causing you to be “lost in space”, that means £3030 from EVERY PERSON’S TAXES to be taken from you at some point in the future. And you get a blue passport and a hard border in Kent. Is it worth it?
Write to your MP. Ask them to pull back from the brink of a Britastrophe before it’s too late.
Our Tunbridge Wells correspondent, formerly a staunch Tory supporter, reports from the G7 summit in Biarritz, France this time last year where Boris Johnson began his career as British prime minister on the international stage with a lie which was massive even by his standards. On 26 July 2019 he said:
“We asked the people to vote on whether to stay in or out of the EU. They voted overwhelmingly, they voted substantially to leave by a big majority”
WRONG
Only a minority of UK registered voters voted for leave – just 37%. 17.4 million Leave voters are NOT a majority in a country with 46.5 million registered voters, or a country with a population of 67 million. The margin for Leave’s win was wafer thin, just 3.8%
That’s NOT substantial, overwhelming or big.
By comparison the amount to remain in the 1975 referendum was 34.5%. That was substantial, overwhelming and big.
Moreover
Many people directly affected by the referendum results were denied a vote.
Two of the four members of the United Kingdom – Scotland and Northern Ireland – voted against Brexit
Leave won by lying cheating and breaking the law. The Prime Minister’s own Counsel agreed, in a case before the Supreme Court concerning the referendum’s validity, that it was ’notorious’.
A Prime Minister who lies to the world is a liability to the British People … all 67 million of us
Write to your MP to demand honesty in politics and the removal of liars. Use Adrian’s article to help you.
Johnson further discredited our country’s reputation for honesty and reliability when, having reached an agreement with the EU on fundamental principles for our future trading relationship, he went back on his word after the 2019 election on the key issue of a level playing field As matters stand today, this issue may well result in “No Deal” with the EU which, combined with coronavirus, can only result in total “Britastrophe“.
I’m really sick of Brexit. I’m even more sick of Remainers! Well, not all of them of course. Just the ones that waste their and my time telling me we cannot stop Brexit or that we must have a Brexit deal, even if it is shit. My angst extends to some of the key culture carriers of Remain, such as Femi Oluwole, Mike Galsworthy, People’s Vote rebadged and the self-appointed Byline Times leaders, who are merely gold-plating the reasons why we lost three elections and behave like an outreach group of the Labour Party rather than an apolitical coalition devoted to saving the UK from itself.
However, we are all on the same train in one respect, but these people have satisficed themselves with a longer term unicorn of some vague renaissance of a United Kingdom in a reformed EU at some point between 2024 and 2029. This MAY happen, but the probability is low, especially if we get a Brexit deal, as Brexit will be settled for a generation, with no-one wishing to re-open the toxic issue.
See also our article that explains why rejoining is probably a unicorn at Fool Britannia
There is a short-term imperative that these people are not addressing. That of Suspending Brexit altogether. I was gutted to listen to Femi “drinking the Johnson Kool Aid” last week, laying out options for future resistance but not listing the goal of suspending Brexit as one of them. Sadly, 500 Remainers listened to this and because we are largely a law abiding lot, most of them probably believed it. Here I set out the rationale as to why Suspending Brexit in the next 2-3 months remains a viable strategy.
Ball of Confusion OCT – DEC 2020
We can foresee a veritable shitshow in the next few months, an Autumn of Discontent. Here’s just a few of the things coming over the hill in terms of psycho-socio-economic and political factors:
Will Johnson do another U-Turn on Brexit? It’s possible if we act upon moderate MPs and embolden the opposition to grow backbones. He is possibly one of the few people who could do this AND get away with it.
I broke the law
When Remainers tell me that we passed a law to get Brexit done, they seem to forget that our Government break the law on a daily basis. They have just withdrawn the withdrawal agreement, the very law that would “Get Brexit Done”. And just recall all the other laws they have broken of late:
No Deal was ruled illegal. We are still pursing it.
Gina Miller won a case in the Supreme Court. It was ignored.
The Government have just voted down the findings from the Grenfell inquiry in a shameful reversal of their promise – in effect they are saying “Burn, Baby, Burn”.
We have an alleged rapist in the House of Commons, yet nothing has been done about it.
Breaking international law is the most recent example of the plain fact that politicians consider themselves above the law.
Since our Government break the law and do U-Turns on a daily basis, they can also suspend Brexit or do a U-Turn on it. There are plenty of good “excuses”, with COVID at the top of the charts.
How would it be done?
In simple terms, all that is needed is a phone call from Boris Johnson to Ursula Von Der Leyen. The EU have always left the door ajar for this. This opportunity will not prevail forever, but it is still possible at this time via whatever excuse Johnson can create and whatever mechanism the legal profession can manufacture.
Of course the phone call is not enough. But lawyers would make millions providing the “legal theatre” necessary to “christen” the decision by writing hundreds of documents to validate the decision and make it look difficult. More work for the legal profession.
Paradoxically the removal of a Brexit deal from the mix of negotiations would actually help create the chasm between No Deal + Corona i.e. a Britastrophe:
Baroness Dido Harding stated today that no one could’ve foreseen the upsurge in demand for Corona virus testing at the present time. Really? At this time, schools across the country have been going back. Almost any parent could have told her that, at the beginning of term after the long holiday, many children catch a cold or at least a sniffle almost at once. Under current instructions, this requires them to be taken out of school for a coronavirus test and not return until and unless there is a negative result. Typhoid Harding’s statement shows her total ignorance of modern life and lack of common sense which disqualifies her for any post in this or probably any other area of public service. Matt Hancock continues to support her incompetence.
Blinkered
But at least Dido’s track record has been consistent. Failed at Talk Talk. Failed at stopping people herding at Cheltenham. Failed at the NHS. Failed at Corona Test, Track and Trace. Will she go down with that ship?
I know I left too much mess and Destruction to come back again And I caused nothing but trouble I understand if you can’t talk to me again And if you live by the rules of it’s over Then I’m sure that that makes sense
We went out to the quaint town of Deal in Kent yesterday. I heaved a sigh on the morning as I wondered whether it was worth writing a press release for local media. I remembered one of the maxims I took, not from my MBA, but from George Michael and Wham “If you’re gonna do it, do it right”. So I dashed off a press release and mailed local media outlets.
Cats and Dogs against Brexit
A couple of hours later the press release was picked up by a fantastic journalist. I got straight on to her by phone as we were on our way to the event, managing to lose our way due to multi-tasking on the way! A few more hours later and we had coverage across all Kent with our message that Corona Crisis + Brexit disaster = A Britastrophe. The journalist even included our video, which was quite surprising as it is fairly biased against Brexit. Of course, a note to Byline Times, controversy sells newspapers …
Find the article Kent Online – The comments from a few remaining Brexiteers are quite something to behold. There is far less push back than one year ago but still some of the usual diehards are claiming that they are taking back control just when Boris Johnson is removing all of our rights and the rule of law. These few keyboard warriors are not representative of the vast majority of people, who actually agreed with our proposition, even in Brexity Deal. Brexit realities are at last beginning to sink in with the toxic combination of Corona + Brexit worth a whopping 12% + 9% GDP loss on our economy if we continue with Brexit on 31.12.20. I’d cancel Christmas for the kids right now.
In other news, our latest blog post “Snitch on your MP“ has been extremely well received. In this article, we ask people to report MPs for breaking international law. Feel free to share and snitch on the MPs – it’s the morally right thing to do.
We will soon reach the eye of the COVID-Brexit storm. This offers an opportunity for suspension of Brexit. Our song “Britastrophe” will be launched soon, to be sent to MPs as well as enjoyed in its own right.
We continue to face various threats from trolls and local lunatics. Please support our campaign to protect my family against these people.
I deplore NIMBY-ism (Not In My Back Yard). It typifies the English condition. It is an underlying cause of our Brexit vote (fear of foreigners, “my home is my castle”, Rule Britannia and so on). We experienced a small dose of NIMBY-sim in conversation with the good ladies of Deal on Sunday. We took the seaside town by storm with some candyfloss and cockles. Although the women we spoke to voted for Brexit, they demonstrated typical English parochial self-interest:
“If it does not affect me, I don’t care”
Yet, even these fine women had changed their mind about Brexit. They realised that their quaint town will be filled with lorries from Dover shortly, under any Brexit deal.
Operation Truss – protecting our borders with cheesy stories about Japanese trade deals
So, I cannot help reflect on the looming case of NIMBY-ism about to befall my fellow men of Kent and Kentish women. It was announced on the BBC that 7000 lorries would soon be blocking the roads in Kent and the South East. This represents a single lane queue of some 72 miles, stretching approximately from Dover to Greenwich, Gatwick or Guildford. Of course. it won’t be a single lane queue though …
No, it will be worse than this. About 18 months ago, I spoke with some Councillors at Kent County Council who had undertook some serious road planning for Brexit. Their studies indicated that, in the age of SatNavs, people would attempt to use villages and B roads to beat the jams. Just a few people doing this will effectively block most villages in East Kent. They concluded that big towns like Folkestone, Dover, Ashford, Canterbury, Whitstable, Thanet Maidstone and The Medway Towns would be gridlocked.
Does it get worse? Of course it does. Once minor roads and villages are gridlocked, teachers, carers, nurses, business people etc. will be unable to get to work. Their children will have to stay at home. Contagion dictates that the impact of Brexit is very much in your back garden (and everyone else’s). Today it was reported that Kent will have an internal border something like the island of Ireland, with fines and police enforcement for lorries without the correct papers. Yet, we don’t have enough permits or customs agents to provide the said papers! Michael Gove says it is business leaders that are to blame for this. I rather think it is Michael Gove for not building capacity and capability.
You may well say, we knew that Brexit would make things worse. Well, consider these further facts of life from my experience as a pharmaceutical scientist and business person. 90% of our food supply comes from Europe, especially in winter. Much of it relies on cold storage (cook-chill, fresh food and so on). So that means that much of our food will stand rotting on the M20 and M2, if Kent County Council’s scenarios come to pass. The leaked Government report predicts up to two days delay per lorry in Kent and the South East.
“No problem, I don’t eat” you may say. Well the problem extends to people who need healthcare, as many drugs are imported and some also crucially rely on carefully controlled temperature conditions. Others have limited shelf lives anyway. Radioisotopes literally rely on limited half-lives, especially technetium generators, which are the mainstay of UK nuclear medicine scans. This means that babies and vulnerable people will die for Brexit. Still happy with half a life? Will your child settle for death, in order to deliver a windfall to Jacob Rees-Mogg?
Boris Johnson has just announced extreme measures for social control to suppress resistance to Brexit chaos. Are you still happy about this? If you voted to Remain, are you simply going to lay down and pretend to be dead, based on the notion that spaffer Johnson popped Brexit in the Microwave, Gas Mark 4 on Halloween, then again on December 12 2019 and finally on 31.01.20? if you voted for Brexit are you now beginning to think that Johnny Rotten was right:
“Ever had the feeling you’ve been conned?”
Project fear I hear you say? No, I’m afraid this is project fact. Whether you voted for Brexit or not, my guess is that you did not vote for lorries in your back yard.
It is necessary to suspend Brexit in such drastic circumstances. Corona has contributed a 12% decline in GDP with Brexit predicted to add between 5-11% more. We have to endure Corona as a natural phenomenon, but we don’t need to add Brexit to create a “Britastrophe”, as Brexit is a man-made phenomenon. The economics don’t just add together to produce approximately 20% loss of GDP by the way. In any case, it only took 3.5% GDP loss to produce the 2008 crash. Do you really want this for your kids?
No Brexit is the only good Brexit. Suspension is the next best option, followed by No Deal and then a Brexit deal. Read why by clicking the image.
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