Back to Top

Monthly Archives: May 2023

Ewa

Goodbye Britain

A wonderfully poignant love letter by Ewa Lewecka on her emotional decision to return to Poland, leaving behind years of living and contributing to Britain. Goodbye Britain. Very best wishes to you Ewa in whatever you choose to do next.

Dear Great Britain / the UK, England…or whatever,

If life has taught me one thing, it’s that the relationships you have are the most precious things you can possess. When life has a habit of turning upside down it’s the close relationships that are there to support you and drag you back out again.

I’m not perfect. I can be stubborn, and I’ve made fair amount of mistakes in the past. Some friendships have lasted and some haven’t. I always expected you to be in my life because you’re my oldest friend but you’ve taught me that some people are just not destined to stay in my life.

I’ve known you for so many years that, for some time, it wouldn’t even enter my mind that we would one day never speak again. We shared so many experiences and created memories that I’ll never forget, but there comes a time when two people start to grow apart. We start to realise that just because the friendship is old, doesn’t mean it’s worth holding on to. Our lives move in different directions, our thoughts and beliefs change and we can no longer keep up with the old versions of ourselves. I feel this happened for us a long time ago and since then you’ve not been there for me.

We are all constantly learning and growing but at some point life took us down separate paths. I tried to support you in your time of need but I barely got the same back. You were busy with Brexit when I needed you the most and your absence gave me time to reassess the value we now give to each other.

I can’t say I’m not hurt but neither of us are at fault. We meet new people and they consume more of our time, we start new relationships that take us onto the next step in life and leaving behind the old. I’m part of that old for you and you for me. Some of the best memories I have are the ones I shared with you but that’s all they are – memories. We haven’t created any new ones for so long now and life has moved on. I’m not angry. I understand.

I want to thank you for coming into my life and teaching me how to laugh and cry in ways no one else has. I want to thank you for being the first real friendship I ever had and teaching me what great friendship is.

It’s time to accept the truth – we don’t need each other anymore. What I’ve learnt now is that life is short and precious and it should be full of people who deserve the best of me and people who don’t take advantage of my support and trust. Breaking up with a friend is never easy but somehow you’ve made it easy for me now.

You will always have a special place in my heart and I’ll sit, wondering and hoping you’re out there happy and content. After all, you’ve helped me become the person I am today and, for that, thank you Britain.

Goodbye Britain.

Check out ‘Orphaned by Brexit’

And now … to my friends on Facebook.

We have never met (actually we have) but I really had a special bond with many of YOU. We shared a lot together, we were angry, we laughed, we supported each other politically and emotionally, we marched together, swore, shouted and cried. I really love you and respect you.

YOU helped me to survive the darkest days in this country.

As you might have already heard of, I’m leaving Britain tomorrow.

I know it’s such a shame of me to leave you alone like this, especially at this time of chaos and when your relationship with nearly all your neighbours is broken.

Many people, outraged, said this country failed to represent you because you were supposed to be the brightest star in the EU.

Many of you gave me a sense of protection, safety and comfort because you’ve been hit hard by Brexshit, COVID, scandals that left many of you bruised and battered, becoming less vigorous as you used to be – still, I have no regret about spending that horrid time here just to see you up close and share your grief.

I think that crazy pandemic time would not be bearable without you. All the things we’ve been through together create a memory in which you are inseparable.

It’s you who gave me opportunities to relax, to laugh, to wait for better days. You showed me a whole new world where my eyes were open in a way as though I was once blind. I have become more critical, independent and confident.

I will never ever forget this journey and the time we spent together. I believe the link is too strong to fade away no matter how much time wears on.

Gosh, I didn’t intend to be this sentimental and affectionate, I thought all I want really was to turn my back and run towards home exuberantly with the least possibility of shedding a single drop of tears.

But I have to admit; when writing this letter, I got quite emotional.

Perhaps saying goodbye to someone important is never easy, even though I felt like I was more than ready this time.

I believe one day at some point not far away from now on, I will see you again. Hopefully, in different circumstances.

TORIES OUT!!

Yes, you know me so well.

As for now, I’ve got to move on, turn the page and start the next chapter of my life.

Nonetheless, I’ll still be following up what’s new about you. So, keep in touch. There’s going to be more challenge for the years to come. Please stay safe and take care.

And before I make my final farewell to you (not lightly), could you pretend I’m standing right in front of you smiling and saying good bye for now and hopefully see you soon, also in the 🇪🇺 EU.

Goodbye Britain.

All the best from me.

Eva, Ewa.

Check out Brexit – Under the microscope

And Brexit – Helpful facts

A great loss to Britain – 17 years of hope, work, struggling as a single mum, achieving degree from Warwick University …
Rejoin EU

Vital statistics

I met a ‘Brexit statistician’ called Daniel on Facebook yesterday. Sadly, he turned out NOT to be a statistician but Daniel WAS a liar. Sadly, he was not a good liar and got found out. He questioned the basis for the data that says 63% of British people now think that Brexit is a mistake. I answered his questions about vital statistics with patience. See Facebook for the full exchange. When I asked him for his qualifications and some other details to validate his statements he ran away. This is typical of the last remaining (sic) Brexiteers. Here’s a summary of Daniel’s intervention:

Vital statistics – Daniel

If I were to credit Daniel with the benefit of the doubt, he tries to set himself in the small space of not being a remainer, nor a Brexiteer, some kind of Schrödinger citizen. At the same time Daniel refuses to validate his claim to be a statistician. This is a strange thing for a statistician to say. Instead he attempts to befuddle me with pseudo BS by suggesting he has been ‘doxxed’. I’m not saying that Daniel is not genuine, but statistically speaking, these are the behaviours of Brexiteers who try to discredit facts but hide when challenged. One thing Daniel says is correct though. The above exchange reminds me that online Brexorcisms are notoriously difficult but still I feel I must try. See this extract from Reboot Britain to understand why online differs from real life:

Online Brexorcism
To read inside Reboot Britain on Amazon, click the extract.

Last gasps

We really are now seeing the last gasps by the few remaining Brexiteers. They know that Brexit has failed, but a few still clutch their pearls, eager to diminish their cognitive dissonance over the contrast between what was promised on the tin and what they got instead. Even John Redwood went on Radio 4 this am to defend the indefensible. The vital statistics are compelling. Brexit is dead. We must Rejoin the EU. Check Reboot Britain out for strategies and skills to achieve the goal.

Giant Redwood talks bollocks about Brexit.
More vital statistics on Brexit – Well worth 14 minutes of your time.

Science

Brexit under the microscope : Science, tech and climate impacts

Watch our latest film on Brexit impacts in terms of science, technological and environmental damage to Britain. The film took days to make and it’s well worth 12 minutes of your time on a lazy Sunday instead of shouting at Laura Kuenssberg on the telly box. Brexit is far from done, as Johnson, Sunak, Truss and Starmer would have you believe, with 63% of people now believing that it was a mistake and 86% of young people wishing to rejoin the EU.  There was a deliberate intent to ensure that we had a ‘boiled frog’ Brexit. This was so that people would not notice our slow motion sleepwalk into Brexit oblivion.  Our frog is probably only at 50 degrees Celsius as there’s plenty more Brexit carnage to come.  People on both sides of the Brexit chasm tell me there’s nothing we can do about it.  They are wrong. 

Our film covers the 4th industrial age and Brexit, science, farming and Brexit. Also environmental standards and the bonfire of EU laws made by British politicians and how Brexit impacts climate disaster in the short, medium and long term. And much more. Check it out.

Boris Johnson promised that the Brexit ‘sunlit uplands’ would make Britain a country where innovation, competition and growth would all thrive thanks to reduced red tape and costs.  These have not materialised.  All the indicators suggest that this will be the case going forward.

In the 4th industrial age, we need to support STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) in order to innovate, reach sustainability goals and profit from the age of AI responsibly.  All the indicators suggest that instead of this, we will plunder science and technology as Brexit cash cows, until we drive innovation out of Britain’s DNA.

Financial support for science looks set to dwindle in the post-Brexit world.  Since science is a team sport, we can expect our reputation to decline in the coming decades.

All of this impacts climate change.  We entered the EU as the sick man of Europe and we are leaving as the dirty man of Europe.  All so that a few politicians can pray at the altar of the false God of Brexit.

Brexitania

Brexitania

By Don Adamson, Brexocist in Chief from Barnsley. This week’s homework in Brexitania aka Broken Brexit Britain: Discuss the following statement: The strongest possible argument against abolishing the monarchy and replacing it with a Presidency is that we have politicians who would dismiss King Charles III and appoint somebody like Johnson as President. 

Trumptown to Truss

This week’s quotes: “Trump had little interest and no gift in foreign policy … his lavish state visit produced nothing …. If that is the kind of friends the right wingers want they are simply not serious people  … They do not exchange Mickey Mouse currencies … I was given a smile of incredulity when I tried to offload my last £50 note  … It is hard to remember but once there were decent Tories able to negotiate significant agreements properly … a succession of increasingly wealthy PMs, with arrogant privately educated ethic that they are better than the rest of us … in truth they don’t have a fig of understanding … Sajid Javid seems compelled to demonstrate that all political careers end in failure … a disgusting exercise in naked populism … Current behaviour of Suella Cowardlywoman, James Stupidly and Richy Scumbag needs to be called out … knee jerk response to entirely foreseeable problems that were bound to arise with their beloved bloody Brexit … Political chaos of recent years … Brexit … Johnson … Thick Lizzie … the question of competence … Momentum, a far left campaign group, would be better named Inertia …

I have had more than enough … of Liz Truss and Richy Scumbag

State of Britain

The British state is simply ineffective … Britain’s sluggish economy is undermining the welfare state … economic growth is the foundation stone for everything … a decade of political turmoil … is a disaster … British tax burden is due to hit a post war high of 37.7% of GCP … Brexit means there are fewer institutional constraints on distortionary state aid … Britain will struggle to compete with USA to attract investment … Britain has neither the industrial base nor the ability to offer larger subsidies … Tory Cabinet Ministers write honeyed histories of the past … such books tell you little about the best and much about the Tories …

CBI – Complete Brexit Idiots

Confederation of British Industry … conduct that fell short of that expected … reported allegations by more than a dozen women of sexual misconduct and misuse of drugs. This included a rape … failed to filter out the toxic people … Israel’s per person GDP is higher than Britain’s … Dominic Raas displayed unreasonable and persistently aggressive conduct … intimidating and insulting … made physically threatening gestures … number and consistency of complaints about Raas … evidence that something was genuinely wrong … the complainants acted in good faith … cutting people off in meetings would have mattered less if was not the sort of person to describe work as ‘utterly useless and woeful’ … it is hard to overlook another problem – his effectiveness as a manager. If enough people think you are a bad boss then you are a bad boss. If employees avoid you the pool of talent available to you shrinks … Raas’s approach … ‘absolutist’ … that sounds like lawyerspeak for ‘complete nightmare’…  Humpty Dumpty replied … when I use a word it means what I choose it mean … 

Bravo President Boris

Braverman describes sending refugees to Rwanda as ‘compassionate’ …  claimed to ‘refute’  the idea that her plans were  not humane … (I think she means ‘repudiate’) … can you make words mean so many different things? … punishes people who have fled war, hunger and fear … how is that ‘compassionate’ …we are truly in an Alice through the looking glass world … there is little attempt to disguise the cosy relationship between Infosys and Downing St … Infosys regards the UK as a wholly owned subsidiary… bagged a seat on the UK Trade Minister’s Technology and Telecoms Trade advisory Group … Richy Scumbag’s wife will bag nearly £6.7M from her shares in the family firm … Last March a High Court Judge found that Tory MP Andrew Bridgen had ‘lied’, ‘given dishonest answers,’ ‘evasive and argumentative’ … Polls always show that the public wants governments to keep their hands off the BBC … Chairmanship of Ofcom needs to be taken out of the PM’s hands … after Johnson’s risible attempts to appoint Paul Dacre … If you want a Republican UK are you ready for Boris Johnson … over the next ten years the politics of post Brexit Britain will grow increasingly volatile … trust in democracy and the  rule of law will plummet to nanoscopic levels … do not much fancy measures that inconvenience Westminster or dislodge snouts from troughs … the political class grows weary of the King’s passion for action on climate change … his concern for the welfare of refugees … … his pesky insistence that a generation of youngsters  is denied opportunity … step forward Boris Johnson … for the truly deranged there is always the option of President Johnson …

Fox on the run

Look at the mess Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News has made of its legal case, costing them almost a billion dollars … Sharp’s piece to the camera announcing his resignation as BBC chairman had the feel and authenticity of a North Korean News Bulletin … how ludicrous that he was even there in the first place … other players in this tawdry drama … Johnson, Richy Scumbag … will be hoping the resignation will be the end of the matter. If there is any decent journalism in this country they will be wrong …

Supermarket sweep

As food shopping gets more expensive across Europe, new checks will makes things even worse here … Food inflation in Brexitania is running at 19.1% a year, highest in 45 years … Britain has Europe’s worst inflation rate … Brexit has added to the burden … Brexit has another gift for the hard pressed and desperate because Brexit is not finished … government has stopped checking quality and safety of food that enters UK … delayed these tests four times … expect massive hikes in food prices … the checks will have to be introduced some time … UK is playing Russian roulette … repeat of the horse meat scandal, another foot & mouth outbreak increasingly likely … farming industry is terrified … food safety and standards under threat … UK is go to destination for every dodgy dealer trying to offload rotten meat, infected eggs, counterfeit cheese, adulterated olive oil and stinking fish … astounding that the government is taking such an unacceptable approach to critical checks … industry is at a huge disadvantage … undercut by rivals who sail through the border … reeks of desperation … the whole food sector is threatened … new rules will add billions to food imports … serious shortages will start very quickly if the system collapses … somebody is going to have to pay for this mess and it will be you every time to you go to the shops …

Bollocks to Brexit
Click image to Flush Brexit.

Not the Nine O’ Clock News

*ucker Carlson, Andrew Bridgen, GB News … populists have lost their grip … GB News has five Tory MPs presenting its shows but is burning £30M a year in cash … racking up complaints … Talk TV … similar outgoings that have yet to be met by ratings …  … for Fox News the problems are still bigger … Carlson peddled conspiracy theories … pulling in around 3 million viewers … his replacement got 1.3 million … Infowars was for viewers who thought Fox too fair and balanced … emerged unscathed till the courts caught up Jones … ordered to pay £1.2B to Sandy Hook families … politicisation of BBC has resulted in a series of sandals … attacks on the Civil Service back lashed onto Cabinet Ministers … Brexit boosterism has left the DUP blocking the government’s efforts to bring normality to Northern Ireland … Every victory in culture wars seems to be a defeat … Influence of Brexit on behaviour of Dominic Raas … has not been examined enough … Civil Servants unable to carry out his orders because of the difficulties of implementing Brexit … We always knew that leaving the EU would suck the machinery of government into the mire … no tangible benefits … undermining the government’s ability to govern …

Hard Labour

Labour’s refusal to mention the failures of Brexit …. missing one open goal after another … looks increasingly pig headed as a clear and growing majority recognise Brexit was a mistake … it is extremely offensive but so is everything about Boris … I wonder if the people of Kent who voted for Brexit would have done so if this absurd anomaly had been written on a bus … Two Parliamentary reports highlight the scale of fraud in the UK and the lack of effort to stop it … £2.2B lost from the Covid business grant … just £10M recovered … £4.5B loss from fraud and error in the furlough and self employed Covid support schemes … fraud accounts for 41% of all crime …. costs individuals £4.7B a year at an average of £1,290 per crime … less than 1% leads to prosecutions … fraud policing is next to non existent …

Don Adamson
Don Adamson – former coastguard, Brexorcist First Class.

Sudan Sunackered

British inaction on evacuating Brits from Sudan is a ‘shitshow’ … Brexitania’s flagship Freeport Tees Valley … industrial scale corruption … NHS have seen their pay fall since 2010 … 18,000 UK trained doctors currently practice overseas, one in seven of the total trained and a 50% increase since 2008 … more than half ‘unwilling’ to return’ … more than 6 million patients on waiting lists … shortfall in England of 1.932 midwives and 496 consultant obstetricians … we need five times as many obstetricians to have a safe maternity service … collapse of safety culture … if UK had the same mortality rates as Sweden nearly 1,000 more babies would live every year … massive midwife shortfall has persisted for well over a decade … we spend £3B a year on maternity services and £8.25B on negligence claims arising from them … one GP for 2,286 patients as opposed to 1,800 ten years ago … tried to subcontract to the private sector but this did not work either …

Woke up Britain

Prof Goodwin’s book ‘Values, voice and virtue; the new British politics.’ … A new elite has taken over Britain … a disaster … woke ideology … graduates are brimming with dangerous, liberal ideals … for a Professor at the University of Kent this is a pretty odd argument…. an unfortunately plausible argument for this sour, paranoid book could be that Professor Goodwin’s grievance stems not from the ‘elite’ but from snotty nosed students who answer him back in seminars and take the Mick out of his crusty political views… Around the world budgets are in a mess … governments are stuck in a fiscal fantasyland … the picture is forbidding … 

Don Adamson Pip Pip             Medway Delta (Retired)          Brexorcist and Saboteur First Class

Sunakered

Brexit Chaos

In the wake of the first Labour local council victory in Medway since 1998, I draw some post-election consequences for the Lib Dems, Greens, SNP, Labour and Conservatives. Undoubtedly, this was a disaster for the Tories and Brexit in terms of what was predicted. The Tories lost 1061 local council seats. The question is, is this enough to get the Tories done and Brexit undone?

My part in the Tories’ decline

At a personal level, I was delighted to play my part in the Tories’ decline in Medway, through long term campaigning, mass Brexorcisms in pubs, cafes, supermarkets, bus stops etc., and doorstepping in Tory voting areas over the last few weeks. My family loaned 8 votes from my family to Labour last week and some to the Lib Dems and Greens. However, we shall not repeat this performance in a General Election, unless Labour turn on Brexit and Europe. I have put their Councillors on notice to this effect.

My Tory MP Rehman Chishti became so desperate about the decline in his party’s fortunes that he decided to attack Suella Braverman about her recent demonisation of Pakistani Muslims in The Observer. This is significant, in so far as Mr Chishti has an impeccable record in voting with the prevailing cabinet. His unbridled attacks appear to have sprung from sheer desperation and a desire to pick up the Pakistani vote in my area rather than any serious conviction that Braverman is an evil spirit who was herself an immigrant. He failed. Given that the Tories have a stronghold in my area, I plan to stand an independent candidate in Gillingham and Rainham and need your help to do this NOW. Please click on the link below and back us.

Get the Tories out in 2024

Lib Dem renaissance

Perhaps the story less covered in the mainstream media is that of the Lib Dems renaissance in last week’s elections. The Conservatives losses were fairly evenly distributed between Labour and the Lib Dems, with the Greens taking a very good proportion of votes as well. If this were to continue, the Lib Dems could find themselves as Kingmakers in a General Election along with the SNP. The Tories and Labour like the binary system which both believe they profit from. But we could find ourselves in a rainbow coalition in 2024. A lot can happen between now and then. Coalitions mean that politicians have to do things they really don’t like doing : listening to opposing views ; coming up with better decisions ; occasional compromises and so on. It’s all good with me. The people may just be the net winners in such a system … ?

The big winners here were the Lib Dems and Greens, with the losers being the far right (Tories) and the far right parties.

Green revolt

The Green party cleaned up, gaining a very respectable 241 seats in England and taking control of one Council in Brexity Mid Suffolk completely. Increasing awareness of sewage, climate catastrophe and possibly a protest vote against the far right parties aka Tories and UKIP may all have contributed to this. Let’s hope this continues into a General Election. Check our film out, based on our music composition ‘How do we want to be remembered‘.

Climate Crisis is the number one issue facing our planet.

How do we want to be remembered?

Rishi Sunakered

Sunak is under pressure from the ERG to go further right with his policies. As a holding statement on The BBC on Friday, Sunakered simply repeated his five priorities. He claims that people who cannot afford to eat were more interested in stopping the boats. Even James O’Brien is not sure what Sunak means by lurching to the far right. O’Brien frivolously suggested on LBC that it might involve bringing back the birch. I’d add bear bating, the rack and the drowning of witches, to take us back fully to Jacob Rees-Mogg’s 18th Century Brexit idyll.

An 18th Century Tory Synthpop Trance Floor dance groove we composed.

I called James to discuss Sunak’s options. Paradoxically, I suggested that Sunak would be better advised to move towards the centre ground of politics to pull the Swordaunt from the stone. James and I riffed away to my catchphrase ‘Sunackered’, which I coined in the summer of 2022. James said that Sunackered (or Sunakered) is worthy of a Daily Mail headline ‘if some guy wasn’t going to wear his mum’s hat and sit on a chair on Saturday’. Listen into to our riotous dialogue at LBC James O’Brien. #Sunackered is trending on Twitter as I write this.

Sunakered
I coined the phrase at the end of Summer 2022. Sunakered is free to use by the populist press. Please download the album to support our continuing work to banish Brexit bullshit.

Early indications suggest that Rishi Sunakered listened to my advice on LBC. Yesterday, Kemi Bad Enoch Powell announced that the Government has rowed back on its promise to have a bonfire of EU laws, 98% of which British politicians helped to make! Unusually, Jacob Rees-Mogg has called Sunak out as a traitor. Bad Enoch was sanctioned by TWFKASLH (The worm formerly known as Sir Lyndsay Hoyle) yesterday. Hoyle is a man who has allowed all sorts of bad behaviour to pass in the House of Commons but decided that enough was enough with the Nigerian Brexit fraudster. Mogg never calls the Government out. He even backs rapists. His outburst on the bonfire of EU law is clearly a smokescreen to get more than 20 Tory signatures on a letter to shaft Rich Tea Sunakered. I confidently predict that the approx 600 laws to be incinerated will be the ones with no large scale impact or connectivity to the main body of EU law. In other words, it will look as if we have taken back control of our laws, but, in reality, nothing will have changed, unless you indulge in some arcane Brexity manufacturing processes. For example, making car engines from English oak, impact-destructing cricket bats or pepper grinders without holes. Otto English sums up one of the many contradictions:

Arse Nicked by Brexit

And, once again, the ERG are fighting like cats in a sack. Andrew Bridgen has split the fascist parties by joining Lozza Fox’s Reshame party instead of Ricardo Tice’s Rebjorn Again party. It’s all good. Rishi is doing exactly what I predicted in order to save the Tory party from Brexit oblivion. Next he will steal Keir Starmer’s clothes, see Hard Labour. Perhaps Rishi is not Sunakered after all?

Sunackered or Sunakered – The theme tune – we were the first to convert the catchphrase into an EDM dance groove in 2022!!

Go now

In his weakened state, Sunak now needs some scapegoats. Given that the Select Committee has not yet reported on Boris Johnson’s multiple illegal, immoral and indecent behaviours, a convenient distraction would be for this committee to make a strong verdict against Johnson soon, such as full suspension from parliament. Accordingly, this would allow Sunak to blame the current malaise in the Conservative party on Johnson and Truss’ catastrophic mishandling of the country. It would also allow him to exorcise Johnson’s ghost without having to do anything himself. This is the way that Sunak likes to handle his HR decisions, through outsourcing to other agencies.

If Johnson is suspended for more than 10 days, The Rejoin Party have a plan to issue a recall petition to remove him from office and break the spaffer’s spell for good. Please join them in readiness.

Voter Suppression

The other big news about the election was voter id and voter suppression. For more on this read our full article on the subject. Early indications suggest that this will have disadvantaged specific demographic areas, such as ethnic minorities, the disabled and young people. The Government now runs the Electoral Commission and they decided not to record any data from polling stations. Correspondingly, it is quite likely that there is serious under-reporting on the extent of voter suppression in these elections. Edwin Hayward reports on over 70 case studies of voter suppression. They are almost certainly the very small tip of a very large electoral fraud iceberg.

These elections have demonstrated that the voter id system is totally unfit for purpose. I made my own small protest to the Electoral Commission. Above all else, please make your voice heard. Add your name to the call for action at electoral reform.

Say no to voter suppression

The Scottish position

Although the local elections are a hammer blow for the Tories, they are not catastrophic. Labour needed to reach the magic number of 40% vote share in these elections to win a General Election outright. They won approximately 35%. This explains why Labour want to take 30 seats in Scotland. I predict an informal coalition of aggression between Labour and Conservative to viciously attack the SNP on any agenda and exploit the change of leadership. Admittedly, the SNP’s transition could have been smoother. However, I believe we will see some very bad behaviour from both Labour and Conservatives in the coming weeks and months. They must be dealt with accordingly.

That said, the SNP’s problems are temporary. The essence of SNP support and the values underpinning them will be largely unchanged by a few sensational tabloid headlines in the longer term. For comparison, I note that Boris Johnson’s many breaches of the law did not attract police tents in his garden and officers in fancy dress Hazmat suits. Added to this, Brexit delivers a daily stream of bad news, both in the short, medium and long term. Robert Peston reported that 86% of young people wish to rejoin the EU. In consequence, Starmer’s position on Brexit is ultimately untenable. I reported on Labour’s position on Brexit in the previous article “Hard Labour“. If Labour’s results are not good enough to win a General Election outright, a hung parliament still seems a likely outcome of the current optimism about the local elections.

Read our page on Scotland

Voter suppression

Voter suppression

Voter suppression is hardly a hot story for the tabloids, particularly with the Coronation and Eurovision to entertain us to death, but we like to publish the stories that the populist Brexit press will not print. There were numerous examples of voter suppression in Thursday’s by-elections. Accordingly, this article records just a few of them. Write to the Electoral Commission to complain about your own examples via Electoral Commission.

The Government now runs the Electoral Commission and they decided not to record any data from the elections. Undoubtedly, these examples are the very small tip of a very large electoral fraud iceberg. This development is a cynically constructed and desperate attempt to cling on to power by the Tories. Accordingly, the policy has failed spectacularly. Britain is now in full decline into a banana republic. The worse part about this is that nobody much gives a flying fuck about it. However, if you do, read on to see some of the examples mentioned by Edwin Hayward:

Edwin’s thread contains numerous examples of fraud

Clear evidence of law breaking by the Tories

The move to voter id is totally “disproportionate” when compared with historically low levels of electoral fraud in UK elections. From the Government’s own website:

The UK has low levels of proven electoral fraud. There remains no evidence of large-scale electoral fraud in 2019

From the Government’s own website. Voter fraud is an illusion created by the Tories.

This is another example of the sleepwalk into a fascist state by the Brexit party aka the Tories. There is absolutely no sensible explanation as why a young person’s Oyster card is NOT an acceptable form of id when an old person’s Oyster card IS acceptable. Add your name to the call for action at electoral reform.

Read some of our other articles on elections at Ensure Brexit doesn’t pay, Gerrymandering and Don’t Pannick.

King Charles III

Coronation celebrations

I now write for Byline Times in Scotland. Above all else, the Coronation celebrations on 6 May will be a welcome relief from Tory gaslighting in difficult times for some. But will it be a mixed blessing for Charles and Camilla? It’s not exactly like the works’ Christmas curry in terms of just trying to get the seating plan right and avoiding embarrassing encounters. The entire world will be watching, analysing, hypothecating and so on. Please read our latest article on the Coronation celebrations at Byline Times. Find it below by clicking on King Charles III or a chicken:

King Charles III Coronation celebrations
Possible PhD project title : “The phenomenology of barbed wire, culture wars and societally caged monarchs – Royalty in aspic”

JOIN US AT OUR NEXT REBOOT BRITAIN MEETING WED 10th May at 8pm via ZOOM

Although I’m agnostic about the royalty and definitely do not want President Boris, I am having trouble swallowing my breakfast at the thought of swearing allegiance to a King who takes no view on the macro issues that affect his ‘subject’s lives and livelihoods’. The BBC are trying to suggest today that having a ‘piss up’ will heal Brexit Britain. It won’t. Just for clarity I made this mini film for Chris Mason, Mishal Husain, Martha Kearney, Amol Rajan et al.

The Police were quick to move in on protestors. They even arrested people who had not actually done any protesting. This is the ultimate manifestation of 1984 Brexit thoughtcrimes. If you are thinking, it’s now possible that you will be arrested for it …

Shouting God Save the King is OK. Shouting Not my King is a public order offence. Jesus Christ !!
Suspicion of crime is now the new standard for arresting people in Brexit Britain.
Thought Crime 1984

If Charles is to prevail, he must exercise some influence upon the Brexit fascists who now run our country. Undoubtedly, it’s the least KC III can do to earn the nation’s respect. The age of deference has gone for most people in Brexit Britain. Finally, whilst we are on the subject of monarchy, here’s some more royalty:

Gimme fried chicken …. image by P Paton.

Click to help us Get The Tories Out

Write your letter to King Charles III

Buy us a coffee

Learned Helplessness

Learned helplessness

I recently published an article on Labour’s position (or lack of it) on Brexit. You can find the article at Bylines Scotland. It provoked an angry visceral reaction from Labour ideologues on social media. Louis told me the article was incorrect and badly written. When I asked him to point out the inaccuracies and poor writing, he couldn’t. Eventually he told me that we must all keep quiet about Brexit, deliver a crushing defeat to the Tories in the local elections and then Rishi Sunak would call a General Election. I asked him to explain his logic. He refused and drifted off into the notion that the UK will be ended if a General Election does not happen in 2023.

Sadly Louis refused to justify his appraisal of the article. And he claims to be a scientist.

Louis’ logic from the exchange can be summarised here:

The Tories suffer a crushing defeat on May 4th.

Sunak must then call a General Election.

He does this so that he can suffer another …. crushing defeat.

Can anyone help me figure out how this works? Call me cynical, but politicians do not call elections that they intend to lose. I agree it’s not impossible but it would require significant public and political pressure. With the nurses having caved in on a pay deal yesterday, I sense that the Tories are now over the hump of public unrest, due to the passivity of the British people. We’ll have to see …

Another chap called John simply called me a silly infant. I asked him to justify his statement. He could not. I don’t mind being called an idiot, but I do mind it when the people doing it cannot justify their insults. Several people have apologised privately on behalf of John, telling me that (a) he’s a bit old (so am I) (b) he’s a bit nutty (do I have to put up with that?) and (c) he is horrible to lots of people so that’s OK (does that make it right?). Here are some of John’s tweets:

No explanation, no apology – the same behaviours as used by Brexiteers

A clear demonstration of learned helplessness

I was also schooled online by Supertanskiii that ‘now is not the time to mention Brexit’. I beg to differ Tan. Airbrushing the word Brexit out of the lexicon is a one way journey, sponsored by the Tories and Labour alike. Brexit is the single most important socio-economic, political, legal and environmental disaster of our age. Denial is not a river in Egypt.

Supertanskiii is a potent online campaigner, but I fear she is emotionally addicted to Labour

John’s views are symptomatic of what is called in the trade ‘learned helplessness’. Remainers lost two elections and a referendum through setting low expectations, accepting rules on democracy which Brexiteers ignored them, believing that we don’t deserve any better and so on. This extract from the book Reboot Britain summarises the ‘condition’:

Learned Helplessness
Learned Helplessness – Click the graphic to read more

So, it seems that we are back into the binary political trap that delivered Brexit. Tony Blair was right when he said that the Labour party often suffers from the triumph of ideology over pragmatism, a disease which caused the Tory party to cannabalise itself with Brexit. Have a look at the Scottish Bylines article and let me know what is inaccurate or stupid about it in the comments or via Twitter. To my Labour chums, I repeat my usual challenging unemotional questions:

What are the differences between a red or blue Brexit? No one will explain them and I have asked many times.

There is a clear business case to support the argument that Brexit has failed. Why won’t Keir Starmer move to this position?

Why will the right-wing media eat Starmer for breakfast if he states that Brexit isn’t working? Read the point on sunk costs in the article to understand this point better.

What makes people believe that Labour will reform the FPTP electoral system in a binary prisoner’s dilemma, all the while they believe that it benefits them? By the way, all the research evidence from UKICE points to the fact that Labour would benefit from electoral reform, in terms of votes, seats and number of terms in power.

If 70% of Labour members wanted to Remain, why are they so docile? What does this say about Labour’s approach to democracy?

Why do people believe that Keir Starmer will rejoin the Customs Union and Single Market when he has flatly refused to do so on many occasion? Surely this makes him a liar? The right wing media will certainly be all over this if he were to gain power.

Hard Labour
Hard Labour – Click to read the article. Image by P Paton

To understand the various options for joining anew, please see London 4 Europe’s article on this.

Join us at our next Reboot Britain meeting on Wed May 10th May at 8 pm via Zoom. Find the link at Reboot Britain.

Brexit BS

This week’s quotes

From Don Adamson, Brexorcist in Chief.

Tory Brexit Scum

This week’s quotes: “open goals that Labour are constantly missing … we have had uncaring people in high office before … rarely have they been as uncaring and incompetent as Priti Patel and Sue Ellen Braverman …disaster of Brexit … fake balance has corrupted TV in recent decade … Brexiters and Tory Party … to blame for everything … what does Labour think it is playing at? … Jeremy *unt knows that doctor’s pay has fallen relative to inflation since the Tories came into power … we are losing British trained doctors … go abroad where the pay and conditions are better … raw sewage pumped into English rivers on average 825 times a day … 

Frack off …

What the papers say

Lawyers for the Daily Mail successfully argued in the High Court that that the names of Daily Mail journalists accused of crimes should remain secret … Graham Johnson confessed to fabricating stories for the Murdoch press …  Gavin Burrows has provided contradictory witness statements to both sides in the Mail litigation … prompted chair of the UK statistics authority to write to the Tory Party to say their infographic was misleading … former Energy Minister Chris Skidmore MP … has been receiving salary of £80,000 a year as an adviser to a company … setting up a business.. Former education minister Gavin Williamson … will be paid £50,000 a year for seven hours work a month … News UK, the company that launched Talk TV lost owner Rupert Murdoch £4M in last financial year … even more than £31M lost by rival GB News… 

Cost of living

Britain’s annual rate of inflation is 10% … still stubbornly high and twice that of US … populist economic model is bust … extraordinary … nightmare … reckless economic model … government has treated business with contempt … only bad options left … surging costs have kept the annual inflation rate in double figures … Britain’s post pandemic inflation rate … stubbornly higher than many of its peers … Tories will be remembered as the party who made most people poorer over 14 years and screwed up public services … there are more credible ways to count inflation … NHS is a stressful and poorly paid place … struggles to retain staff … junior doctors choose to work overseas … junior doctors left the profession a huge cost to the taxpayers for training them … something has gone badly wrong … real pay has fallen to around 14% below levels in 2010 …

The NHS

150,000 vacancies in vital jobs across the NHS … method is not working … Australia, New Zealand and Canada are only too happy to employ doctors we have paid £250,000 to 5000,000 to train … overseas recruitment is drying up because word is out NHS conditions are awful … excess deaths and waiting lists already high … UK has fewer doctors per head of population than most comparable countries and worse public health … worst public health crisis in a century … profiteering pack … profits of £78.4 M on income of £468M … extreme profits made by suppliers of PPE and testing kit … multi billion pound extent to which taxpayers were overpaying …

Brexit NHS Farage
We’re still waiting for the £350 million EVERY week Johnson

Brexit superpowers failing

We have no chance of being the new Silicon Valley and the Tories know it … all such promises will remain hollow … Tory politicians are anti Woke, despise the left wing ‘blob’ of human rights lawyers and civil servants … they want to represent the ‘somewheres’ and not the rootless cosmopolitan ‘anywheres’ … the ‘anywheres’ can take a hint … they will go anywhere to avoid the hate speech the Tories are spouting … what are the chances of UK emulating California … Zero … UK is lagging because we de-industrialised under Thatcher … our education system produces too few teenagers with maths and science skills … EU has agreed to pour in €6.2B of subsidies into semiconductor design … our young innovators are barred …

London is an attractive place for high flyers … in banking … Australia has become a Mecca for UK qualified doctors and nurses … Brexit has seriously damaged Britain’s ability to be part of the tech innovations story …  youngsters have to believe that this is a country with a future, not just a past … Richy Scumbag has always been reluctant to talk about Infosys, the Indian IT giant founded by his father in law … government’s own database has shown the company has been involved in £172 M worth of public sector contracts … Scumbag’s wife holds 38.9M shares worth around £89M in Infosys … dividends £12M a year … not liable for UK tax …

Raab C Brexit

Dominic Raas … massively unpopular … more than half his constituents do not want him or his ideology… graceless remorseless death of a desperate man … Raas wrote the least contrite resignation letter of the modern era … Raas told the BBC that civil servants were out to sabotage Brexit, parole reform and overhaul of human rights laws … Tory Peer Lord Marland said exit of Raas … a conspiracy by the civil service … if anything the opposite is true … Raas did not recognise wise counsel when offered it … Johnson claimed ‘the civil service wants to destroy me’ … remorseless attacks on Civil Servants … is deeply corrosive to good government … populist politics … premise that there are simple solutions to complex problems … when the absurdity of this becomes clear the next step is the attribution of blame: the vilification of people supposedly obstruct the popular will … Judges are enemies of the people …

Parliament is unlawfully prorogued … civil servants are plotting against popular ministers … The civil service deserves a gold plated ‘thank you’ for keeping the country running while the Tories have been preoccupied with a seven year long nervous collapse over Brexit, the economy and tribal identify … Raas was one of the worst Foreign Secretaries of modern times (a disaster during the retreat from Kabul) … Underlying this is the weakness of Richy Scumbag … looked desperately for a loophole that would allow him to keep Raas … Scumbag clings to Sue Ellen Braverman ,,, she is a human shield between him and the far right … Scumbag presides over a hung Parliament of factions … just waiting to see how bad the damage is in local government elections … Tory edifice continues to crumble and the country suffers accordingly … Raas … pathetic conspiracy theories are just another manifestation of this protracted decline … a reminder that desperate people really will say anything …

Murdoch

I wanted to see Rupert Murdoch put his hand on the bible and burst into flames … an alternative facts’ media empire … did concede that Fox News promoted 2020 election falsehoods … Murdoch has got away with it … what is $787.5M  when you have another $20B  to spare … Fox News broadcast of lies … the settlement is tax deductible … Murdoch thought ‘the election is a hoax’ thing ‘really crazy’ … Fox fact checkers considered the promotion of election deniers as ‘dangerous’ and ‘mind blowing nuts’ … hoodwinked outright fools … *ucker Carlson was the fountainhead…stoking ‘white hatred’ … maintaining a toxic workplace … Johnson and Thick Lizzie ludicrously turned up for the dinner at Hillsborough Castle … even he must have felt the coldness of the cold shoulders turning as they saw him loom … qualities of bad leaders ‘bitterness, jealousy and paranoia … the damage Brexit has done to the Good Friday Agreement … change of government in London cannot come a day too soon …

Little Brexit Britain

Britain has been diminished by Brexit …People in France remain baffled why a once powerful partner in the European project has been stricken low by an act of elective impoverishment … Claims that Rejoiners are lying about the true cost of leaving the EU are more absurd than ever … Lord Adonis said in 2016 that the vote caused a nervous breakdown in Whitehall … it is a jump to suggest that this proves the existence of a dastardly plot …. Remainer propagandists like nothing better than to use ‘official figures’ to suggest things are not working …

In Tombsland if figures do not show that Brexit is a triumph they must be the work of a dark conspiracy that supposedly pro Brexit ministers have been deplorably slow to disavow ‘misleading’ statistics … attacks on what he calls ‘dodgy figures’ … make no sense at all … The UK would see income losses of about £57B annually … in fact we are losing £40B annually so the cost of leaving is four to five times higher than the cost of membership and that is only if you count the cost of leaving the single market; just one small part of the EU … Swathes of the UK political and columnist class have lost their sanity over the visit by Biden to UK and Ireland … UK’s strange neediness towards America … “

Brexit cannibalism
Denis MacShane

Denis MacShane

Denis MacShane is a former Labour MEP who has written several books on the folly of Brexit. Denis is a British former politician, author and commentator who served as Minister of State for Europe from 2002 to 2005. He joined the Labour Party in 1970 and has held most party offices. He was MP for Rotherham from 1994 to 2012. In the interview, MacShane treads a careful line as a Labour party member, but does point out that there is a new realism in politics with the presence of adults in the room and the fact that the culture carriers of Brexit are now wholly discredited. He points out that Starmer’s slogan “Make Brexit Work” is an empty promise.

Interview with Denis at UK in a Changing Europe

For a rounded appraisal of Labour’s position on Brexit, click on the image to read the article on Scottish Bylines.

Bylines Scotland
Bylines Scotland