I am speaking at a panel event with the BBC’s Jonty Bloom on September 7th in Brighton from 7 – 9.30 pm with a cast of star people. We will be discussing the impact of Brexit on musicians. Organised by Helen Gibbons, Chair of European Movement Sussex. We will also be making stops with the Bollocks to Brexit Mini Cooper en route at the Millennium Clocktower and Seaford (venue tbc) 2 – 4 pm with our UK Brexorcism Tour. See Facebook for up to date details of the tour schedule.
Click to reserve your place.
Click to reserve your place.
Unlock the Music
The careers and livelihoods of UK musicians are being damaged by the loss of the right to work across borders in Europe. European Movement Sussex presents Unlock the Music, a panel event focused on the impact of Brexit on the music industry.
Experienced industry professionals and working musicians will each present their evidence and tell of the issues that have damaged the careers and prospects of many of those involved in music in the UK. They will also offer achievable solutions that the UK government should pursue.
Panel members include:
Dave Webster – Head of International at the Musicians’ Union
Will Page – Author, podcaster and former Chief Economist at Spotify
Tom Kiehl – Deputy CEO and Director of Public Affairs at UK Music
Heather Bird – Double bassist and founder of Classical Evolution
Peter Cook – Author of three books on Brexit and six albums of protest songs
Hanna Madalska-Gayer – Head of Policy & Communications, Association of British Orchestras
Jonty Bloom – Freelance journalist ex BBC and New European contributor (Moderator)
This is the first of a series of three Rebuild with Europe events addressing Brexit impacts on specific sectors. Future events will focus on agriculture and education.
The Future Is Yours. Don’t Let Them Take It From You by Simon Stiel.
I am 36 years old and you may think I have not been around long enough to have a view about Britain and Europe. I will do what I can here.
As a child, I was privileged in that Europe seemed local to me. 80% of the world’s population has never been aboard a plane. With family members on the continent, flights during the summer or Christmas holidays were run of the mill. So were day trips going on either cross-channel ferries, hovercrafts, catamarans or later the Eurostar.
When the single currency was introduced, I was in Year 10 at school. I first heard the opinion that Britain should leave the European Union and I was sympathetic to that view. I held beliefs then that I now find ridiculous. One was the introduction of the Euro was a sign of the Third Reich being reborn. Europe being dominated by a malevolent power. Britain had things that were special like Parliament, the common law etc. The European Union threatened that or so I thought.
For my A Levels, I studied Government and Politics. I learned how the European Union worked and that Britain, far from being dominated by the European Union had been a key member and had secured opt-outs from moves promoting integration. We succeeded in getting opt-outs like keeping the British pound and the rebate during the Eighties.
Support our UK Rejoin tour
In June 2005 and on the then 30th anniversary of holding of the 1975 referendum and while sitting my exams, I watched the documentary How We Fell for Europe. Made by Michael Cockerell, I found it excellent and it challenged my views. It showed that contrary to the belief that Britain was deceived into joining the European Community, it showed that advocates for membership were open that sovereignty was being sacrificed. One poster from the Keep in Britain in Europe campaign had the slogan: “Forty million people died in two European wars this century. Better to lose a little national sovereignty than a son or daughter.”
It was also in 2005 that I went to Berlin and Krakow for a school history trip. It was sobering seeing where the Berlin Wall used to divide the city. It was a wonderful experience visiting Krakow too. and it was just a year after Poland became a member of the EU. A year later I found my late Polish grandfather Erwin’s family in the town of Radlin, Poland after writing a letter to an address. In 2008 for the European Universities Debating Championships, I travelled to Tallinn, Estonia as part of Queen Mary, University of London’s team.
If you are given a crummy product, you return it, get your money back and get compensation from those who mis-sold it to you.
Germany had been divided by over forty years. Poland and Estonia had been dominated by another power. They were EU member states. They valued their freedoms, parliaments, identities and languages intensely. So why did many see the EU as a threat to British identity and freedom?
Margaret Thatcher made that point herself in 1975 as Leader of the Opposition and as part of the Keep Britain in Europe campaign: “It is a myth that our membership of the Community will suffocate national tradition and culture. Are the Germans any less German for being in the Community, or the French any less French? Of course they are not!”
The Keep Britain in Europe campaign was well-run in 1975. They had the facts ready to show to voters how being in the European Community benefited local areas throughout Britain. They took their opponents seriously.
It would be a different matter in 2016. The Remain campaign was complacent and the Leave side won.
When the result was announced, I felt sick. I graduated from university in 2008 just as the recession hit and I had struggled to find paid work. The struggles led to a nervous breakdown in 2013. It took me a year to recover and in December 2014, I was confirmed autistic by the NHS. It did not come as a surprise to those who really knew me. It was a relief to me. After another year of trying to find paid work, I had got a job through a programme offered by Buckinghamshire Council at the time. As many others did, I had struggled. Why would we want to add to those difficulties by leaving the European Union and face great uncertainties?
I thought the referendum would be a close result and in favour of Remain. We are still living with the hurt and bitterness seven years later. I want to make clear I have no ill-will in any shape or form to anyone who voted Leave. I respect the secret ballot and I do not ask people how they voted on 23 June 2016.
Brexit is going to do nothing to help us address those problems. The Office of Budget Responsibility has pointed out that the Brexit has caused a 4% loss to the British economy. Many now face carnets, paperwork and regulations to play music and do business on the continent that took decades to remove. Many have been hurt in the process of Brexit and will continue to be under the present arrangements. What we have now is far worse than what we could have had and definitely worse than what we did have. Far from taking back control, we are not in control and we have to pay to access European Union bodies with no say now in how they are run.
I have thought about leaving Britain. I certainly see myself feeling at home in France, Germany or Poland. Perhaps even further afield like Canada, South Korea or Japan. However, there is much of Britain I have not visited. I love Britain while hating what is being done to it. Leaving it would be too painful as I would miss so much: family, friends and places.
The debate about Europe is not about young v old, rural v urban, regions/nations or about party allegiance. It is about how we can find solutions to address the problems facing British society today and properly reboot Britain: how to create wealth; provide educational opportunities; tackle structural inequalities; address health inequalities; promote and further arts and culture; safeguard the environment; recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and come up with solutions to have more sustainable transport and ways of living.
Repairing our relationships with our closest neighbours will be tough. I would like to make the following suggestion. I hope that alliances are formed between voters, incumbent MPs and parliamentary candidates cross-party on one policy: rejoin the EU. Editor’s note : Join GIna Miller’s True and Fair party.
That way, it could become possible we could start to heal ourselves by asking ourselves difficult questions and to dispel the misperceptions about the European Union that persisted for decades and that the Leave side could exploit in 2016. We could have a dialogue with the 27 member-states and gain the benefits of club membership once again.
Take on the Brexit machine with arguments and evidence. Do not give up. After all, if losing meant you give up your cause, the Leave side would have given up and shut up decades ago. They were beaten comprehensively in the 1975 referendum: they didn’t give up. The Labour manifesto in the 1983 General Election called for Britain to leave the European Community. Labour was beaten comprehensively in that election: leavers didn’t give up.
It would be a start and it would also offer hope to many voters; particularly those born in 2004-05 who will be voting for the first time in the next General Election. I implore people to use their vote in whatever way they see fit whether it’s queuing at a polling station, voting by post or by proxy. If a Conservative ultra-safe seat like Chesham and Amersham can change hands, so could anywhere else in Britain.
There is much to criticise about Edward Heath’s conduct as Prime Minister and after he left office. However, what he said during the 1975 European Community referendum has resonated with me.
“The future is yours. Don’t let them take it from you.”
True & Fair is a minor party, passionate about local issues affecting our rural countryside communities. The countryside is the backbone of our economy and we recognise it has been left out in the cold after Brexit with no deal and no way forward, the True & Fair Party plans to change that.
You are invited to join our Parliamentary Candidate for East Wiltshire, Pete Force-Jones and True & Fair Party Leader, Gina Miller on Wednesday, the 30th of August, at 10 am where we will announce the beginning of our journey to improve the countryside, and get a better deal after years of inaction and being let down by the major parties.
This is your opportunity to let us know how we can best represent you and your businesses; we are here to listen. We will be announcing our countryside policy at the town hall event. Join the True and Fair party – we deserve better, not more of the same.
When
August 30, 2023 at 10:00 am – 12.00 noon
Where
Marlborough Town Hall The Court House 5 High Street Wiltshire, England SN8 1AA United Kingdom
Don Adamson writes from his hollow in Barnsley where he contemplates everything from the Disney Longstocking prison ship to Boris Johnson’s sacking from journalism and beyond.
This week’s homework:
One – Some people would say that Chris Mullins was an under rated minister. He felt strongly about efficiency and economy. He would never make a decision until he was satisfied that the proposal was a) effective and b) economical. His staff officers complained that he sometimes took this to the point of diminishing returns. Sooner or later you come to the point where the cheapest thing you can do is sign the cheque and get on with it. Are there any ministers in this government who can be criticised for being over economical and over efficient?
Two – Trump faces 91 indictments. a) Will he score a century? b) Trump calls this a Which Hunt. Is that because he does not know which indictment is which?
Three – I looked in at the Iceland supermarket to buy provisions. The young lady at the checkout said she like my Bulwarks to Brexit cap; for which I thanked her. With the benefit of hindsight perhaps I should have told her that the people in charge of Iceland used to be ardent supporters of Brexit. We hear less of that nowadays. Do I understand that even the people who own Iceland have noticed that Brexit has not turned out to be the earthly paradise we used to hear so much about? Have even the people who own Iceland noticed that Brexit is doing a FUBAR on the British economy?
This week’s quotes:
Rupert Murdoch
… used to grant more audiences to Richy Scumbag than even his arch toady Johnson … passion appears to have cooled…
JCB Chairman Lord Bamford
… said in 2016 that UK was the fifth biggest economy in the world … last year UK dropped to 6th largest … Bamford in no way apologetic for his position on Brexit but wails ‘Isn’t our country in a mess now?’
Immigration no immigration dream of Brexiters lies in tatters
… no public acceptance of this by the government … compared with what we had before Brexit the system is costly, time consuming, badly run, wrapped in miles of red tape and is nothing more than a huge anchor holding the economy back … Brexiters are in full retreat. While publicly lecturing business on the need to conjure up new British employees out of thin air … privately lowering the thresholds under which foreign workers can come to Britain … quite a turnaround … foreign workers can come to Britain at great expense and bother to themselves … makes sectors of the economy look aghast at the government making their lives more difficult … hospitality…. government has come up with what in Blackadder would be described as a ‘cunning plan’ … a pathetic ruse to claim that immigration is not happening when in reality it is … an arrogant, ignorant fantasy … desperation leads the government to propose ridiculous policies like these … Scumbag’s team is torn between populist rhetoric it spews out and reality .. a moribund economy where growth is non existent … a disaster happening before our eyes … latest ruses make it harder for universities to recruit foreign students, even though they are the only thing keeping the further education sector afloat … At least in Italy the far right has woken up to reality … in our surreal politics government promises cuts to immigration knowing full well that it is neither in the national interest or possible…
Number Crunching
7.47M is the number of people on National Health Service waiting lists (up since Richy Scumbag pledged to reduce them). – 8% proportion of NHS budget spent transferring patients to private care … £318M cost of housing 500 refugees in cramped Bibby Stockholm barge for a year … £15.25M Cost of sending 500 refugees on a Disney cruise for a year.
Live scenes from the Disney Longstocking.
Hack watch
Nick Timothy, Telegraph correspondent … Britain faces multiple, complex crises … everything seems frozen by uncertainty, ignorance and fear. The understanding is not there, the ideas are not there … The challenges we face are truly enormous, yet our politics has never seemed smaller … Capitalism as we know it has failed. Not even the Tories can defend it…
Michael Gove told last month’s conference of Local Government Associations
… financially struggling councils were a handful of cases, the exception … six councils have declared themselves bankrupt since 2020 … several others could join them … Kensington and Chelsea (Conservative) …deficit of £47M by 2027 … Kent County Council (Conservative) … faces a deficit of £86M this year … Hartlepool (Conservative since 2019) …even with a 5% increase in council tax deficits could increase to 8M … Warwickshire (Conservative) … worst cases scenario of £106M deficit by 2028 … Guildford (Lib Dem since May previously Conservative) … £300M debts …
Coutts furore with Nigel Garbage
Coutts indicated the decision was not about politics but corporate image… Mad Nad Dorries is taking a break from her little watched show on Talk TV … less than 3,000 views on YouTube … has not spoke in Commons for a year … her constituency want her to resign for her lack of work … most MPs don’t give a toss about the public …
Richy Scumbag’s stance continues to baffle EU officials, UK universities and research community … haggling over pennies … Brexit Britain procrastinates while other countries queue to join, New Zealand is latest non EU country to apply for associate membership … Scumbag is determined to de-Europeanise education and research … Scumbag is committed to government’s own half baked Pioneer scheme …
Immigration legal aid lawyers in South West England have zero capacity to take on asylum seekers housed on Bibby Stockholm
… makes a nonsense of Deputy PM’s claims that the barge will make processing easier … Dowden also complained he did not hear howls of outrage of use of floating accommodation in other countries … Silya Europa in Netherlands has been controversial for the last year…
Lobbying by MPs government promised reform
… not much has changed … income from outside jobs up to £4.75M from £4M … Tory MPs … make multiples of their salaries … standards committee concluded that placing limits on outside work was too difficult … plenty of room at the trough …
Britain should rejoin … without further delay … British sciences face major obstacles … British scientists are clamouring to get back into Horizon … Richy Scumbag sees three arguments against … none stand up to scrutiny … Tories trumpeting planned Britain only project Pioneer … cannot match … Horizon … hard-line Gammons argued Britain could keep benefits of membership … difficult to find a better example than Horizon … Researchers and universities say delay over Horizon has cost the country … If Scumbag is serious about supporting British science he should stop dithering and sign up without delay ..
Brexit has failed
… London Stock Exchange looks increasingly moribund … Brexit has not made it easier to manufacture in UK … exporting has become more complicated … Britain is a diminished actor in export markets … failed to bring in investment … shrank by nearly half in 2022 … Britain is going backwards … Britain’s finance sector battered by Tories … workers have fared no better … raw sewage pumped into English waterways … failing health service… Brexit is a catastrophe for the country which those who campaigned for it claimed to love … Nigel Garbage now barely mentions the B-word … Johnson’s weekly Daily Mail column is largely a B-word free zone … no wonder Mail executives are ever more loudly asking each other ‘whose f*****g idea was this?’ … meanwhile true believer Richy Scumbag quietly drops, yet again, plans for new checks on imports from EU of farm produce … Who would have thought it, apart from those people who warned it would happen? … If Brexit was going well we would never hear the end of it…
Brexit has failed. Click to read our article from 2021.
Eurosceptics are Ecosceptics
This time they will wreck the plant … When you have done all you can to wreck the nation what is next? Answer: wreck the planet … two projects are two sides of the same ugly coin … striking membership overlap between the European (not much) Research Group and the Net Zero scrutiny Group … Lord Frost, former chief Brexit negotiator, claimed, extraordinarily that ‘rising global temperatures are likely to be beneficial’ … both ideologies involve a shocking indifference to evidence and data … distaste for ‘experts’ … same paranoid suspicion of ‘global elites and conspiracies’ … Nigel Garbage is the key figure moving further and faster than most Tory MPs are prepared to go … all horribly familiar … classic disruptive playbook, first devised by the tobacco industry and now the basis of most populist politics … put the frighteners on Keith Starmer … you might think that Brexit did more than enough damage …
… his Daily Mail gig likely to be no exception … Rothermere, mindful that Keith Starmer has promised to end non dom tax status, is less concerned that the column is desperately boring as its ceaseless digs at Richy Scumbag…
Don Adamson Pip Pip Medway Delta (Retired) Brexorcist and Saboteur First Class
This is just a video post for a change. Watch our latest film and listen to our latest music composition below. The film is described thus on our EU TUBE Channel. Please subscribe and share our independent work.
Rishi Sunak’s “Stop the Boats” programme SHAMES Britain.
Suella Braverman’s Rwanda scheme is ILLEGAL, IMMORAL, INDECENT, IMPRACTICAL and VERY EXPENSIVE.
Rishi Sunak’s Government does not WANT to solve the migration issue, because it feeds their racist BREXIT election agenda.
If Sunak wanted to solve the migration issue, I explain with the migration algorithm how he could do it …
But he must pray at the racist Brexit altar for his backers. Sunak is weak. Sunakered as I discussed with James O’Brien on LBC.
Some jarring comparisons are made between Sunak’s Government and “The Office” mockumentary. Except that running the country is not a comedy.
I construct these pieces in my studio. This piece began as an instrumental and was a creation from an operatic vocal melody. From that I wondered how it would sound with some very hard industrial drums. I thought this created tension. At that point I decided it should be a spoken word piece on the Brexit administration’s shameful approach to immigration. The Jonathan Pie video was very influential in guiding the final piece.
Opinions on the song and film vary. For the sake of democracy, I have included samples of both !! 🙂
Brilliant Peter! While people are upset about Saudia Arabia coming over on a visit and their misuse of human rights in their country the same thing is happening over here with how the people in small boats are being treated!
This article in The Guardian is being shared widely by Rejoiners at the moment. It is a good piece of academic analysis. Yet I have some problems with a couple of the points it makes (I guess that’s unsurprising!!). It’s a long piece, so buckle yourself in for a long ride. Here’s what I really like about the piece:
Consonance
The article correctly states that the Brexit mindset is a complex interwoven set of beliefs (coalitions within coalitions) that keep getting reinforced by our populist media. I articulated this via my ‘Brexit Brain’ model below. Quite why I coined the phrase ‘Brexorcism‘ to describe the complex quasi-religious mindset change process in the book Reboot Britain.
“It’s really hard. We see tremendous stability over very long periods of time. A choice like Brexit provides endless stimuli to feed that brain activity. It’s coalitions within coalitions within coalitions…” Darren Schreiber.
The Brexit Brain – Read more by clicking the brain.
Thus, normal approaches to change management are not valid: ‘Carrots and sticks; are often used to change simple levels of behaviour and performance at work. For example, if you pay people more, they might work harder for a while. Put them under threat, they may also work harder, go on strike, work less or leave the company etc. But changing Kwasi-religious beliefs such as Brexit is a whole different ball game. It’s not a rational choice as the Guardian article rightly explains.
Whole brained change
I advocate a blend of so-called left (more analytical) and right brained (more emotional) thinking to reach deep into the Brexit psyche of my ‘clients’, what is known as a ‘hearts and minds’ approach in business consulting circles. Using hard hitting emotional headlines to grab people by the heart and longer more analytical approaches to ensure that their heads fall in line with their hearts. The dual approach is epitomised in the book Private Eyelines, a book targeted at leave voters to help them understand how they were lied to. p.s. DO NOT buy the book on Amazon. I get a £2.00 royalty on a sale of £32.99 for six months work, as Amazon keep all the profits! Whilst I don’t write books as an income source, I also don’t write them to boost Amazon’s profits. If you wish to buy a copy direct at an author’s discount, talk to me direct via reboot@brexitrage.com. By the way the left-right brain divide has been questioned but the idea of whole brain thinking (analytical and emotional) is a handy notion to help us think about the need to reach head and heart.
“A man with a conviction is a hard man to change. Tell him you disagree and he turns away. Show him facts or figures and he questions your sources. Appeal to logic and he fails to see your point.” Leon Festinger.
Another truism in the article is the belief that all leave voters are unresponsive to dialogue, thick or closed. This reveals itself in oft quoted statements by some Remainers, who say things like “You can’t educate pork”, “I’ve tried everything” and “They are thick as mince”. Truth be told, some Remainers lack the skills, patience and time to conduct effective Brexorcisms. Also it really matters who you choose as your ‘client’. There really is no point working on a ‘Nigel Farage type hardcore Brexiters’ but many leave voters are not hard leavers. Selection of your targets is key, both in terms of where they sit on the Remain – Leave continuum and to what extent they are key opinion formers for others who follow their views.
“When you pathologise the other side, there’s no point in reaching out to them” Brian Hughes.
Relationship and rapport is key
The article goes on to say something terribly important. “If there is a way through this, he suggests, it is to break down the myths of us and them.” A successful Brexorcism only operates on the basis of a strong relationship and a basic bond of trust. If you are going to challenge beliefs, you need a massive ‘bank balance’ of relationship power to succeed. This is why Steve Bray and his cult have changed very few minds by ‘shouting at people’ in Parliament, upsetting sympathetic media people into the process. In case of doubt, I started on the street with Steve at No 10 Vigil. He quickly spotted that the real action was at Parliament instead of Downing Street and set up a splinter group. Later on, I tried to gain him a permanent platform with other figures at Channel 4 News which he rejected. Of course, Steve’s activities outside the House of Commons have other functions. However, his finest moments were when he quietly but firmly ask politicians difficult questions using a Socratic style and a ‘servant leadership’ approach. But everything counts. We need to use all the therapeutic communication styles as discussed by John Heron in Reboot Britain. Social settings such as cafes, pubs etc. are often more helpful than formal settings, hence my comments about the sauna below, although the sauna is not the only environment in which you can change someone’s mind about Brexit!
In the article, Carol Tavris confirms the view that ‘consonance’ or rapport is vital as a starting point for a successful Brexorcism. The conversation is a healthy mixture of what Comms people call ‘pull’ and ‘push’ strategies or what musicians and psychologists call consonance and dissonance. Finding some common ground is extremely important or giving away trivial wins in order to build a connection. One of the difficulties I notice in some activists is their fundamentalist need to ‘win’ all the arguments with leave voters. It’s better to let them have some small wins in the dance of Brexorcism.
“When we argue with somebody about their beliefs, the absolute crucial thing to avoid is making them feel foolish. If you say something like, ‘How could you be so stupid?’, that will almost always make your listener become even more committed to their belief. If you say instead, ‘Well, many of my own expectations turned out not to be the case too’, that might be a place to start.”
Dissonance
The Guardian article suggests that we must fully convert people to become Rejoiners. This is akin to a religious conversion or what I call a 360-degree Brexorcism. This is fundamentally incorrect. All we need to deliver as a ‘MVP‘ (Minimum Viable Product” is to move people from the idea that Brexit is a good idea towards ambivalence or doubt about the value of Brexit, a 180-degree Brexorcism. This is a much easier task. This converts in behavioural terms to people not voting in another referendum / General Election to support a Brexit party or possibly voting for a pro-Rejoin party to balance out their previous vote. Obviously a full conversion to the cause would be a much stronger position but, as the article points out, it is much more difficult. This is like trying convert a moderate Christian to Islamic fundamentalism when we only need to go as far as agnosticism, not even atheism.
Our approach to Brexorcism has validation from low-profile approaches to change which were reported on by the BBC some while back. A Brexorcism blends ideas from psychology, sociology, anthropology and therapeutic interventions. People who tell me that you cannot change the minds of Brexit voters simply have not understood the fundamentals of Brexorcism which requires large doses of skill, patience and time. I’m offering a free masterclass on the topic for North Hertfordshire for Europe on Sunday November 19th at 5.00 pm via ZOOM. Contact me to reserve your place. I am also willing to give keynotes and masterclasses on our UK tour to develop a cadre of Brexorcists. This is vital if we are to move the dial faster on Brexit regret by a General Election.
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Brexorcism
The will of the people has changed
My other major beef with the article is that it suggests that “though there is some anecdotal and polling evidence that there has been a shift in sentiment, and that remain might now prevail, the same polls show very little appetite to reopen the question.” This is incorrect on two levels:
There has been a seismic shift from 4% to 24% of people that believe that Brexit has failed. By 2024 it is quite feasible that 70% of people will believe that Brexit has failed. At that point politicians will no longer be able to look the other way.
Whilst it’s true that there is currently no appetite to reopen the Brexit question, this is merely a feature of where we have got to in the cycle. Also, of course, a sense of foreboding that another referendum would re-open all the family feeds / social angst and so on. However, another bloody referendum is not the only way to settle the matter. It is also quite certain that not opening up the difficult question will mean that the wounds of Brexit will remain with us for generations to come. Some kind of healing could actually take place with a grown-up recognition that Brexit has failed and that rejoining the EU is both possible and desirable. There is an embedded assumption that we MUST do this via a referendum. It ain’t necessarily so. See this article for London for Europe and Reboot Britain on the choices we face.
Myths and Riffs of Brexit
I note that the last remaining Brexiters are putting forward a number of myths to silence debate. Sadly some remainers also buy into these myths due to learned helplessness. For example:
‘Learned helplessness’ on the part of Remainers plays into a passive acceptance of the idea that Brexit is done and it cannot be undone. This is the belief that we don’t deserve to join anew as it might be considered anti-democratic etc. However, a referendum won through fraud, fake social media ads and which was judged illegal by the Supreme Court had it been mandatory is not the high-water mark of democracy. Leavers were not satisfied by a super majority (67.2% on a 64% turnout) in the initial referendum to join the EU in 1975. Nor should we.
Learned Helplessness summed up. We must not subscribe to it.
Indonesia– our structural deficit
Learned helplessness prevails in a vacuum of leadership and a lack of coherent strategy. Whilst the Remain movement was relatively united in the summer of 2019 after a number of victories, the 2019 election fragmented people again along political party lines. There are now as many proposals on how we rejoin as there are pundits. I describe the organisational structure of the Remain movement as being like Indonesia i.e. 17 000 islands and a few bigger ones. But all operating independently. The bigger beasts such as the European Movement compete with other actors such as Best for Britain. Others prefer to plough their own furrow. Some have been asleep at the wheel, calling for Remainers to make the most of Brexit. Yet, the only good Brexit is a dead Brexit. The consequence of being ‘Indonesia’ is that we find it hard to do things at scale. Fragmentation of strategy / structure and poor leadership also mean that we spend as much time arguing internally about strategy as we do in acting on Brexit and Rejoin. I set out five goals which we coalesce around on a monthly basis. It ain’t perfect but we do our best to provide clarity and collaborative leadership across a group of people from Europe. Join us on the first Wednesday of each month at 8 pm UK time via ZOOM. See also our article on Strategies to Join EU anew.
17 000 islands. A few bigger ones.
Five goals to join anew.
Not fade away
One specific point in the article which is not quite correct is the mention of BBC Question Time’s Brexit special event in Clacton. The journalist stated that the audience was made up entirely of those who voted leave. He went on to suggest that this was presumably to ensure the debate would not simply descend into an all-too familiar slanging match. We actually attended the event and talked with people on the street in Clacton. Levels of ‘Bregret’ were widespread in Brexity Clacton outside the event. They were also quite easy to get from people who realised that they had been taken for fools. The Brexit voting audience were also happy to speak with us after the event and many were of the view that Brexit had failed and that they were lied to. It is therefore a mistake to assume that all Brexiters attending BBC QT are now fully committed to Brexit.
This was mirrored in Brexit voting Deal the other week and on BBC Any Questions in Tory voting Southend on 17 August 2023, where the audience failed to applaud any of the statements made by the Tory panel member. Having been at the centre of some extreme nastiness by Brexiters, including the ex Met Policeman who issued threats of violence, spray painted my house and attended with a knife, I observe from Brexit voting Kent that the slanging matches have largely subsided. However, the article is correct when it infers that the products of Brexit won’t go away by not talking about it. See our Brexit iceberg below. Like it or loathe it, Brexit is the smelly dump and stain in the toilet bowel of life that won’t flush.
The Brexit Iceberg.
Brexit will continue to traumatise a generation if we do not burst the boil of Brexit one way or another. I believe in facing problems rather than sweeping them under political carpets. Labour in particular will be culpable for assisting the tragedy of Brexit if they continue to look away. Much in the way that the vast majority of good German people were silenced through fear during Hitler’s populist uprising. Fence sitting on Brexit is assent.
“The Tories will crow about Brexit being done. The Labour frontbench will solemnly observe that past tense, and avoid the B-word, as if it is a triggering trauma for the party and the country, best left undisturbed.”
Brexit is the smelly dump and stain in the toilet bowl of life that won’t flush
Lost consonance
As an aside, I found the opening paragraph about ‘Brexit hard man’ Steve Baker an unusual lead into the Guardian piece. I saw Mr Baker’s attempt to draw sympathy from the public to be a calculated attempt to humanise him as a piece of electioneering and not a window on his tortured Brexit soul. No decent Christian would agree with the human principles on which Brexit is founded. Like everything else with Brexit, it’s just another set of illusions. For example, The European Research Group (ERG) does no research. The weaponisation of asylum seekers to appeal to racists and people with feeble minds is not what Jesus would have done. and so on. Baker uses his faux Christianity as a shield and has now turned into a snowflake to gain sympathy from his constituents using the Brexit confessional box. Baker’s so called mental illness, beard growth and acne were mobilised as excuses. Krishnan Guru-Murphy’s analysis was correct when he pointed out that Baker was a C…nt.
Baker explained “I felt repugnant, hateful, to blame for all of the troubles that we had, absolutely without any joy, constantly worried about everything to the point of mental torment. A constant state of panic attacks and anxiety”. So he should, for all the pain he has inflicted on our children and those having anxiety, depression and lost careers / jobs / livelihoods due to Brexit. In fact, Baker should be in jail alongside Rees-Mogg who promised us cheap training shoes, Farage who promised a boom in fish and chips and Johnson who said that Brexit would make my wife’s breasts bigger. I’ve checked several times. They haven’t.
Two – If there was a Nobel Prize for Jackanory, PG would have won it every year. I had the misfortune to work with him long ago and far away. After work he would stand at the bar and entertain his friends with blood curdling accounts of his adventures in faraway places with strange sounding names. By a strange coincidence these adventures would bear an astonishing resemblance to the story lines of movies recently screened at the local cinema. My personal favourite Jackanory was his involvement in the 1953 Everest expedition. He was supposed to make the final assault but that was cancelled at the last minute. One of the climbers broke a leg and PG had to say with the casualty because PG was the only paramedic on the expedition. PG turned to Edmund Hilary and said: ‘You will have to go with Tensing tomorrow. You are the next best man after me.” That claim should be written in gold letters on the wall of a museum dedicated to Bull***t. PG very quickly stopped being funny. Within weeks of his arrival he grandly announced that he was on the verge of major breakthroughs that had baffled us lesser mortals. We would have thanked him for it if he had succeeded where the rest of us had failed. Alas 18 Months later (when I was posted away to another assignment) he was still claiming (without a hint of irony) to be on the verge of these same major breakthroughs.
I chanced to meet him again years later. I asked what he was doing with his retirement. He claimed to have gone into politics and was both a local councillor and a school governor. I asked which party. He replied “Conservative.” Why does that not surprise me?
This week’s quotes
Georgia has the goal of EU and NATO membership
60% of Georgians want to join NATO …80% want to join EU
Brexit Hack watch Daily Mail says Brexit is having an effect on advertising revenue
… It is rough out there… Mail big Leave Supporter … Mail leader May 2023 said ‘too early to say if Brexit was working’ … An Wilson permitted to suggest ‘Brexit was a mistake’ … Andrew Neil wrote fatalistically ‘Brexit could transform Britain but neither Richy Scumbag nor Keith Starmer is a true believer’ … Daily Express in 2016 more anti EU than the Mail now runs stories of the downside of Brexit. Torygraph says ‘Brexit has been botched’ … Spectator Brexit means more immigration than ever … to a degree that New Labour would never have dared attempt … Brexit benefits utterly non existent … newspapers distancing themselves from something they helped create … is Labour’s Keith Starmer the only committed Brexiter left in Britain …
Pandemic Britain had half the intensive care beds compared to Europe average and quarter of Germany’s
… failure to enhance health and safety law … dearth of guidance … grossly inadequate health provisions … healthcare workers exposed to harm … some dying … 2012 Health and Social Care Act shrunk and splintered public health teams … Austerity starved essential services of cash … worsened public health … double whammy made worse during pandemic … no NHS hospital had plans for a sustained pandemic … lacked skill set to plan … buildings old and poorly maintained …
Ultra Low Emission Zone
… Johnson condemned the scheme despite him bringing in ULEZ as Khan’s predecessor … surprises nobody given Johnson’s depths of dishonesty and opportunism … across Europe only Turkey has a higher respiratory death rate than UK … world beaters at last …
… Somebody is sitting in the shade because somebody else planted a tree long ago … perennial problem: balancing the long term good with short term expediency … that is why the National Health Service was in such a precarious state when Covid Struck … intensive care beds run down to dangerously low levels … World Health Organisation said NHS was way out of line with other countries … Germany had 33.9 beds per 100,000 population … England had 10.5 … dreadful long term vulnerability … delaying criticism of how government handled pandemic takes priority over preparing for the next one … Top British scientists unanimous that every day we spend outside Horizon damages our science base. Amount of EU money going into British science since 2019 decimated … people doing groundbreaking research have deserted because UK excluded from Horizon … Eminent scientists despair … no confidence in Pioneer; the government’s half baked proposal for a go it alone version of Horizon … Private Finance Initiative hospitals are being crippled … just one of many problems … indications are that Tories will concentrate on immigration and culture wars. It will take a brave optimist to see Starmer rising above this…
Liberal Democrat Autumn conference embarrassing diary clash
… same day as the National Rejoin March takes place in London … last thing we want is a desultory turn out …membership numbers have dwindled since Ed Davey repudiated the Rejoin policy … Editor’s note : NRM might also have checked the date as I imagine that the Lib Dems will have had this fixed in the diary for some time – one of the first principles of event management. I am banned from attending by a cabal of self-annointed European Movement / Grassroots for Europe people anyway.
Nigel Garbage in penury
… lately bought a new £575,000 beachfront house … all cash transaction brings his property holdings to around £2M…
Farage v Cats
Lloyds Bank understandable desire to be rid of the Telegraph and Spectator ASAP
… a valuation near the touted £600M is wishful thinking … print side of the Telegraph operation is a liability … ensuring the titles end up owned by a very right wing owners clearly in the best interests of the faction that now controls the Tory Party …
For years we have not had a serious government
… a grisly soap opera in which talentless characters have starring roles and prime ministers change almost as often as Chelsea managers …Downing St 5 – Stamford Bridge 9 … we have not had a serious media but dumbed down commercial interests masquerading as purveyors of news … taking what used to be serious parts of the media in their wake … unserious government and unserious media are locked in a dumbed down political embrace … Huw Edwards spasm, a dubious story in dumbed down dubious newspapers … allegations against Dan Wootton the GBNews presenter are far more serious than anything thrown against Huw Edwards … if you write down the top thousand grievances that should command the attention of the PM Nigel Garbage’s banking arrangements should not make the list … Richy Scumbag bleating about the need for professionalism and integrity … this from the man who sat alongside Johnson … Covid partied with Johnson … tolerated the lies … Cabinet queued to fuel the Nigel Garbage as victim narrative … he and the right wing media ARE the establishment … pushed a referendum on Cameron … moaning about their victory ever since because the Brexit they get is never the one they wanted … rest of the country knows Tories will never find it because it does not exist …
Don Adamson Pip Pip Medway Delta (Retired) Brexorcist and Saboteur First Class
I said many months ago that Rishi Sunak is a desperate man, strategically in a corner. I expected him to come up with some disruptive moves to improve his chances of winning an election. In doing so, he would steal Keir Starmer’s clothes on Brexit. Well, he has. Welcome to PAY AS EU GO rejoin. The first signs of this have appeared via the Horizon science deal and paying for French border controls to do our dirty work. As with a phone contract, pay as you go tends to cost you more in the long run for fewer benefits and other restrictions. These changes are a very small nudge towards the centre of British politics. However they are more than counterbalanced by the gross moves towards a fascist state via the latest revelations about the Bibby Stockholm and the intention to break international law by leaving the ECHR. Overall, the Tory party is still being played by Richard Tice, Nigel Farage and their shadowy backers.
The British traitors.
The arrival of the Bibby Stockholm floating prison is a grim reminder to us all that fascism is never far from the surface of public life in Britain. Every country in the world has dabbled with various forms of ‘othering’, but Brexit Britain has weaponised racism. This is quite surprising, given that Brexit folklore says that we beat the Bosch and saved the Jews. From the moment that Nigel Farage adopted a Nazi inspired poster to stir up latent racism in Britain, he then won the Brexit referendum by the narrowest of margins. Research from UK in a Changing Europe demonstrates that the austerity programme from 2010 – 2016 produced a 12% swing towards the 51.6 : 48.4 result, as people looked for other people to blame for their concerns. Foreigners are an easy target and Suella Braverman has weaponised the ‘swarms of migrants’ issue to appease her racist backers.
Gallows’ Pole. The face of Brexit Britain. Photo by Rob Pinney/LNP/Shutterstock
So, why am I not delirious about PAY AS EU GO Rejoin? On the face of it, what I call ‘logical incrementalism’ sounds like a good idea. However, the more sectors that Rishi satisfies, the less people have residual concerns about Brexit. If he solves the scientists’ main concerns, they leave the table, having got some of what they wanted. If he does some kind of single market arrangement, then businesses will be satiated to some degree. The same with farmers. Gradually, the pool of people that are concerned about Brexit gets smaller and smaller through divide and rule tactics.
The end losers will be the 68 million people who have no rights to live, love and prosper in the EU but we have no collective voice compared with big lobbying groups such as Scientists, Universities, Farmers and so on. Until my kids get their rights back, I will never be satisfied. You may call me an idealist or deluded, but I think you owe it to your children and grandchildren to leave them with some hope?
Whilst we are here, Labour have no idea what they are talking about when they say that they will make Brexit work. Our only hope to reform Britain is to work towards a rainbow Parliament with a greater representation of other parties such as Lib Dems, SNP, Greens, Plaid Cymru, True and Fair. I am putting my efforts behind Gina Miller’s True and Fair party.
I write this piece directly to leave voters. I ask you the Johnny Rotten question: Ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated? This piece of investigative journalism deserves your full attention. I’ve set out some of the main points below, but watch the entire film. You were played by Nigel Farage, Richard Tice, their shady backers and their poster boy Boris Johnson. They took you for fools with well executed lies about fish, the NHS, laws, borders, sovereignty et al. How does it feel to be treated like pawns in a game that you were never part of? You will be paying for Brexit for decades in your pay packets, your freedoms, your health, wealth and happiness. It is time to demand your money back for the illusions of Brexit. Watch and learn how you were played:
The Brexit illusion of sovereignty was just that – an illusion – we could not have had fox hunting, pints, three pin plugs etc. if we were enslaved to a European superstate
The Farage illusion of taking back control of our fish was also an illusion. Many fishing businesses are suffering under Brexit
The Brexit illusion of funding our NHS failed. The £350 million every week never arrived
The Brexit illusion of a United Kingdom failed. Northern Ireland will eventually unite with the Republic of Ireland. Scotland and probably Wales will also leave Brexit Albion
The Brexit illusion of growth failed. Liz Truss’ experiment with Brexonomics took £100 BILLION off the UK balance sheet. You will be paying for this long into the future.
The Brexit illusion of frictionless trade never happened. With food inflation of 15% and a Government fear of implementing border checks lest it leads to food shortages
Whilst the Tories continue to gaslight the nation about small boats, prison ships and so on, the truth will out. Here is our mash up of the Daily Excess for the week of bullshit in politics. If you like this, you will love our book Private Eyelines. DO NOT BUY on Amazon. Buy direct for best prices via reboot@brexitrage.com. Please see below for the real Tory stories they are trying to cover up.
For more of this, please get your copy of Private Eyelines by mailing us at reboot@brexitrage.com
Sugar Sugar
Brexit Secretary and sugar magnate David Davis went on BBC Radio 4 to explain that Brexit was not a cause of our problems. Instead he blamed the Civil Service. When pressed he admits that the Tory Government were responsible. Even the BBC’s Brexit loving Martha Kearney was astonished. Hear a slice of the interview on our Bandcamp radio interviews album. To correct the Daily Maul front page, Brexit is the cause of Brexit and not lefty doctors, cat owners, scientists, benefit claimants, woke metropolitan elitists yada yada.
Sick of being sick
Therese Coffey, Suella Braverman, Robert Jenrick and others are in denial of the significant outbreak of sewage related illness at the recent triathlon in Sunderland. Instead they continue the blame game whilst water companies turn in record profits. Lib Dem MP Munira Wilson did not even get an answer to her question about a related problem with Thames Water. Are you still prepared to vote for these shape-shifters? SARS in their eyes?
The contempt of Sunak’s so called ‘answer’ and the nodding Tory dogs are the hallmarks of fascism …
Sick of being Jenrick ….
The Pippy Longstocking
The wonderful Jonathan Pie sums up all that is wrong with this Brexitory government in his latest rant. Attempting to put asylum seekers with tuberculosis onto a boat which would act as an incubator for the disease is a significant public health risk. It is an echo of Boris Johnson’s wilful act of killing 40 000 people by putting infected COVID patients into care homes. Meanwhile Rishi Sunak took his kids to a restaurant in the USA where meals can cost £12 000 whilst Lee Anderson is knocking them up in the kitchen for 30p a serving, even undercutting Jamie Oliver.
Legion-Ella
It has emerged that Suella Braverman knew of the Legion-ella infestation the day BEFORE they started putting asylum seekers on the prison ship !!! This is a government sponsored death camp. Read our article in Spanish and English on the subject of racism at The Prisma.
From the moment that Nigel Farage adopted a Nazi inspired poster to stir up latent racism in Britain, he then won the Brexit referendum by the narrowest of margins.
Follow the money
Meanwhile, it has been revealed that the real reason for the Stop the Boats campaign, is of course, once again money. UKIP donated £70 000 to Langham Industries. John Langham the owner was a long term supporter of UKIP and clearly the Tories are frightened of UKIP and the far right so they have become them. In time, I would not be surprised to learn that the Tories themselves have financial interests in the boats, hotels and other aspects of the criminal fraud that sits below the ‘fury’ in the Express, Mail and Sun. Crispin Blunt already receives a salary as an adviser to one of the asylum hotel groups.
Aside from all the above, one boat to house 220 people is quite literally a drop in the ocean when compared with the backlog at the Home Office. This is deliberate managed decline by the Tory Government. The ceremonial nature of the Bibby Stockholm hides something else that they do not want us to talk about. Look deeper.
“Fuck off back to France” – Lee Anderson.
Watch and share our two minute explainer on how to deal with immigration properly.
FASCISMFACT ANDFICTION CHECKER
ULEZ is the Ultra Low Emission Zone and not the Uber Lesbian Empowerment Zone as Boris Johnson probably thinks it is. Doubtless Bojo would be willing to lend his ‘Johnson seed’ for the purposes of ‘lesbianic correction’ though !! How many kids has he got now? 12? It was in FACT Boris Johnson who introduced ULEZ and NOT Sadiq Khan. It is yet another manufactured piece of ‘gaslighting’ done by the Tories as a desperate piece of electioneering.
The Sunday gutterpress papers are trying to blame the French for the deaths in the channel. NO, this is fully the responsibility of Rishi Sunak, Suella Braverman and the Brexit cabinet. I’m quite surprised that the Sunday Express et al have not tried to blame French Legionnaires, Emmanuel Macron, Sophia Loren, Camembert, Cotes du Rhone or Sacha Distel for the deaths as yet.
We can and must Rejoin the EU to save Britain from Brexit oblivion. There is now a whopping gap of 24% in favour of Rejoining the EU.Click the image to support us via PayPal, Patreon or Go Fund Me.
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