Dominic Cummings, Chief Adviser to the Prime Minister and would be dictator, has gone. He leaves behind an unparalleled legacy of chaos and destruction.
All power is centralised at No 10, with key functions such as appointments, vetting and control of data the exclusive preserve of the Chief Adviser.
His nominees occupy key posts for which they are totally unqualified.
Ministers opposing him have been sacked and most of the rest have proved second rate or worse.
The functions of the cabinet have been usurped by a crowd of unelected advisors who, according to the last Cabinet Secretary, meet and take decisions with no ministers present.
Parliament has been sidelined and MPs contemptuously disregarded.
To cap it all, there are clauses in the Internal Market Bill, now before Parliament, permitting the government to legislate by executive order over a broad field.
This bill is currently blocked by the House of Lords, and is also in breach of international law. But even if the latter aspect is eventually removed under pressure from the United States and EU, the danger of increased government by decree will remain.
This is the state of democratic government in the UK as 2020 comes to a close.
Many years ago, Lord Hailsham warned that Britain was an ‘elected dictatorship.’ Now we can see what sort of dictatorship it can become in the wrong hands.
Whilst we are here, please continue to share the Priti Woman Bully Back Better video which had over 1000 views yesterday. Share with your MP.
Article image by Cold War Steve https://coldwarsteve.com
Cummings has gone – But it’s business as usualas we remain dogged by dogma.
The departure of Chief Adviser Dominic Cummings aroused some hope of a new beginning:
Dogma would be replaced by realism.
Honesty would replace corruption and cronyism.
Respect for the rule of law and our constitutional conventions would be restored.
This has already proved to be naive. The Culture Secretary is pursuing plans to abolish the BBC and replace it with American-style radio and TV. Hancock has given an influential post in the health department to a lobbyist, a former girlfriend from university. The Government still ignores appeals from business to postpone Brexit at least until the pandemic has abated and normal conditions restored – an attitude described by one commentator as about as sensible as a man with a broken leg trying to take part in a marathon.
Get Ready for 30 miles traffic jams, portaloos and dogging stations
Above all, there is no sign in the EU negotiations of the government compromising on its demand to be able to bribe foreign investors on terms which are denied to EU members themselves. As Johnson and Frost well know, this is incompatible with any level playing field and strikes at the heart of the EU’s single market. Their refusal to compromise on this key issue makes it plain that ‘No Deal’ has been their aim alI along. If that occurs, the resultant expense, disruption and impoverishment will be 100% their responsibility, and theirs alone. Paradoxically, it may perhaps also hasten their downfall and open the way for more reasonable successors to negotiate a closer relationship with the EU or even rejoin earlier than might otherwise have been the case. They may in fact come to be dogged by dogma.
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On this day when the Government says that we need to extend Brexit negotiations and that Brexit is all Cummings’ fault anyway. It also emerges that a US trade deal is years away. Here, we offer a news roundup via the medium of the satirical “Kent Massager”, as Brexshit hits the fan.
In case of doubt …
FACT : The Daily Express DID report on FURY re our Kent Toilet of Britain project. In fact it was not mass fury. FICTION : The Express managed to find just ONE person, in Yorkshire, who objected to the signs in Kent.
Don’t read the Daily Express, click to read the “Excess”
FACT : Trials at the border show that if it takes 70 seconds to check a lorry, a five mile queue ensues. We can expect significant and continuing gridlock in Kent and maybe even into Sussex, Surrey and London if Brexit happens.
FACT : There has been a prediction of an increase in dogging in Kent after Brexit. We are not sure why it matters but there you go. I prefer Labradors to Terriers myself. How about you?
FICTION : Priti Patel has NOT unblocked a toilet. FACT : She has blocked the futures of EU Citizens living in UK and UK Citizens living in Europe. Our video Priti Woman has been banned for under 18’s after complaints by the Conservative party. We don’t know why. Here it is for your pleasure.
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 …
