In this article by Simon Steil, from the Chesham and Amersham seat in Buckinghamshire, he asks if you want to Reboot Britain? If so, it’s essential to make your vote matter.
Beginnings 2005
The year 2005 was significant for me in many ways:
I went up to read History and Politics at Queen Mary, University of London. I’m an F1 fan and young Spanish driver Fernando Alonso and Renault won the Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championship, beating Michael Schumacher/Ferrari who had won both championships since the beginning of the 2000s. Doctor Who was revived on the BBC. I watched it and thanks to the writing, the cast and the powerful performance of Christopher Eccleston as the Doctor, I was hooked and I have watched it ever since.
Having done mock General Elections at school and having turned 18, I voted in the General Election. At the time I was politically partisan in favour of one party. There are things I believed and said back then that I feel deeply embarrassed about now.
My three years at QMUL were fantastic. I challenged and questioned my beliefs and by the time I graduated in July 2008, I resolved not to become a member of any political party. I did help out at Watford and Norwich North seats and found the experience great fun: speaking to voters in-person as well as telephone canvassing in local offices and national headquarters. It was at the time of the expenses scandal and there was a lot of anger from many people at MPs. I tried to explain that MPs were so important for constituents, that they try and help people solve serious difficulties affecting their lives.
Then came the 2010 General Election. I am not proud to say that for that election, I spoiled my ballot paper. I drew a box and voted for RON or Re-Open Nomination. Student Union elections have that option and I wanted that for the General Election. I was not happy with what the three main parties had to offer, I couldn’t vote for any of them so I did what I did.
Stoke Mandeville.
A Coalition Government was formed for the first time since the Second World War. In 2011 we had a national referendum for the first time since the 1975 European Economic Community one. I voted Yes for the Alternative Vote to replace First Past the Post as the system we use for General Elections. Having looked at the different electoral system, I concluded that First Past the Post should have been scrapped. The post is all over the place because of the erratic variation in the relationship between number of votes, number of seats parties can win. As shown time and time again by reports by the Electoral Reform Society, candidates/incumbent MPs could win seats with ridiculously low shares of the total vote.
First Past the Post distorts campaigning by parties. A form of negative campaigning is constantly done by the major parties “Don’t vote for the candidate or party you really want to, you’d let the other one in.” One major reason the June 2016 European Union membership referendum happened was the Conservatives were fearful they’d continue to lose votes to the United Kingdom Independence Party.
FPTP unfit for purpose
The 2015 General Election happened and the result was the Conservatives got a majority of 12 seats despite a vote share increase of 0.8% compared to 2010. The Liberal Democrat vote collapsed and they were left with eight seats in the Commons despite the fact they had got more votes than the Scottish National Party. The SNP achieved 56 seats.
The following June, the European Union referendum did take place and the Leave campaign won it. I voted Remain in 2016 referendum. I was not convinced the Leave side had anything positive to offer and that Britain was better off staying in an imperfect European Union compared to outlandish claims of supposed benefits like an improved National Health Service if we did leave the EU.
I hoped up to 2018 that Britain could negotiate an exit while staying in the Single Market/Customs Union. That seemed possible with the indecisive 2017 General Election that led to the Conservatives forming a pact with the Democratic Unionist Party of Northern Ireland. In summer 2018 the Leave campaign’s cheating and law-breaking became publicly known.
I had hoped that after those findings, Article 50 could be revoked. The 2019 General Election then happened and with a withdrawal agreement on offer in their manifesto, the Conservatives were able to hoover up Leave or Leave-sympathetic voters nationwide.
Swings and roundabouts
How big was the swing really? It was swing of 270,000 votes or 1.2% compared to the 2017 General Election. It was still big enough to give the Conservatives an 80-seat majority. The Liberal Democrats had the manifesto titled: STOP BREXIT: Build a Brighter Future. They achieved a vote swing of 4.2% nationwide compared to 2017. Their result? A loss of a seat.
We left the European Union the following year. I thought that was it. We were out and we would stay out …
Seeds of change
… Until June 2021 when Sarah Green won the Chesham and Amersham by-election. Chesham & Amersham had been Conservative-held since it was created in 1974. It also thought of as an ultra-safe Conservative seat. Then Prime Minister Johnson, Cabinet Ministers and others came to canvass with their candidate Peter Fleet. They were confident the seat would be theirs again. They were proved wrong.
So what of the future? If you are a Leave voter or a voter that thinks that Britain’s new relationship with the EU is better than what we had before 2016, you can vote Conservative or Labour.
There are millions of voters who disagree and think we should at least rejoin Single Market / Customs Union or perhaps try to apply to be a full member again.
In July 2021 I was at a Make Votes Matter stand in Marlow. Make Votes Matter was formed in 2015 to try and persuade the public that First Past the Post should be ditched. I agree with them, it should have been scrapped decades ago not just now.
Whatever you do at the next election, use your vote whether it’s walking into a polling station, by post or by proxy. Just use it. You may supplement your tactical vote with Swap My Vote, which helps to make the most of an unfair system. Swap my vote is completely legal and decent in an unfair system. Get in touch if you want to understand how Swap My Vote works via e-mail reboot@brexitrage.com
Click on the image to find Swap My Vote.
Fresh on Reboot Britain – our first article by Simon Stiel on the subject of Making Votes Matter https://t.co/lqNpICpUXC
— Reboot Britain / Rage Against The Brexit Machine (@BrexitRage) June 20, 2023
Just use it to show our politicians that Brexit is hurting many, it’s not a success now and it never will be.
In everyday life, when you get scammed and given a crummy product, you return it, get your money back and get compensation from those who mis-sold it to you.
Our weekly update from Brexit Balderdash de-Bunker Don Adamson from his Brexit Bunker buried in Barnsley. Don takes on GB News aka Gammon Balderdash News this week.
This week’s homework:
One. Discuss the following statement – Daily Vile has made large numbers of staff redundant, Torygraph has called in the receivers, fewer and fewer people are watching Gammonite Balderdash News Cur James Dyson, Nigel Garbage, Dim Tim Wetherspoon, Ann Widdecombe. Rachel Johnson (sister of Satan’s Deputy) and 66% of Daily Express readers have stated that Brexit has gone horribly wrong. Meanwhile Keith Starmer insists he can ‘make Brexit work’ despite all the evidence to the contrary. Starmer is, essentially, giving us the same deceit and hypocrisy that Neo Nazi Tories and far left Trade Unionists have been giving us for years. Can Keith Starmer do what Neo Nazi Tories have failed to do?
Two: ‘Men without honour and women without virtue’ is a disparaging comment that has fallen into disuse because it is nowadays considered politically incorrect. For all that it may be out of step with the times it is a profoundly accurate way to describe the people who have inflicted this Brexit FUBAR on us. This is a good time for Johnson to go. He can quit politics secure in the knowledge that Keith Starmer is as hell bent on doing a Brexit FUBAR as the Tories are hell bent on doing a Brexit FUBAR. Tories got us into this mess by making promises they could not keep. Keith Starmer says he can get us out of this mess by repeating the same promises even though he knows full well that that these are promises that nobody can keep. In what way are Labour Party promises they cannot keep better than Tory Party promises they cannot keep? In what way is a Labour Party Brexit FUBAR better than a Tory Party Brexit FUBAR? In what way are Labour Party Brexit masturbation fantasies better than Tory Party Brexit masturbation fantasies? Why are we stuck with a ruling class that is hell bent on doing a FUBAR?
Three: In the language that Gammons, Flagshaggers and Tories speak the term ‘Move on’ is a euphemism for ‘Allow crimes to go unpunished.’ Why are Gammons, Flagshaggers and Tories so anxious to let crimes go unpunished? Similarly: Love Americans or hate those at least Federal Prosecutors have the brains, courage and decency to bring charges against Trump. Why is it that British prosecutors lack any kind of brains, courage and decency?
Four: Torygraph has gone into receivership. Elon Musk has expressed an interest in buying it. Will this make the Torygraph more of a pack of lies or less of a pack of lies?
The Torygraph. Return to sender. Click to read more.
Five. Rachel Johnson (sister of Satan’s Deputy). Recently commented that apart from Brexit and the Pandemic her adored brother got everything right. For the last three years Gammons and Flagshaggers have been telling us that they ‘Got the big calls right.’ Do we now understand that Brexit and the Pandemic are otherwise than ‘the big calls?’
Boris Johnson in the stocks – Image by the brilliant James Rowland.
Richy Scumbag’s new ‘anti fraud champion’ Antony Brown…. accepted £5,000 … from Jeffrey Archer – one of the most notorious frauds in British political history…. Polyco Healthline’s Covid record … supplying more than a million counterfeit masks … bagged profits of £40M last year… Blame Matt Hancock … everything is his fault. We always knew that he was a useless idiot; which is why we made him health secretary…
Sexual harassment
How did Nadine Dorries react when Johnson was accused of covering up repeated incidents of sexual harassment by Tory Whip Chris Pincher … Dorries defends Johnson … a man who thinks he is above the law and the standards the rest of us are held to… Rape has long had the lowest charging rate of all crimes…. in recent years a precipitous drop in the number of cases that make it to court … reports of rape have increased exponentially …
Last year a senior Daily Mail journalist … sacked after sexual investigation with junior trainee … pontificating of one pundit left colleagues gobsmacked … propensity for harassing junior male staff … resulted in staff leaving with payouts …
Sue Ellen Braverman’s speeding ticket
… Grease Bogg laughed off questions about whether he speeds … message from corridors of power is that speeding is something that everybody does … provisional statistics for 2022 reveal 136,000 road casualties including 1,659 deaths …
We need a new industrial revolution
Can Labour provide one? … Manufacturing peaked across G7 countries in the mid 1960s …our political elites did deindustrialisation long and hard … manufacturing in Germany and Japan contribute 20% and 17% … in Britain 9.7% … we have the smallest manufacturing sector in the G7 and is shrinking the fastest … restricted the UK’s ability to haul itself out of recession … only a productivity miracle will provide an escape hatch … too small to drive an economic turnaround … there are solutions but none of them have the slightest chance of boosting UK to pole position within 5 years … the easiest way to achieve Labour’s growth target would be to boost inward immigration beyond the already all time high … the deindustrialisation mania of the 1980s and 1990s left us strategically insecure … learning must begin with frank admission of what we do not know …
Keith Starmer’s attempt to win over Daily Express readers by nailing his colours to threadbare Brexit flag
… Starmer accused the EU of stealing our dinner money on the basis of a Brexit that he voted for … Express readers cynical about attempt to win them round… at event in Ely not one person thought Brexit was going well … Brexit is the worst act of self harm in the world’s development … direction of opinion polls is all one way at the moment … timing of Keith Starmer’s article … adamantly sticking to his ‘make Brexit work’ approach all the more baffling … reality has caught up with Johnson lies and Nigel Garbage fantasies … ‘Christ! This is worse than anybody expected’ … Keith Starmer promises the ‘highest sustained growth in the G7 … not going to happen until we fix the damage Brexit has done …
… resignation honours always pretty dodgy … Thick Lizzie’s list has also been put on definite hold… prospect of Johnson’s unredacted WhatsApp messages being submitted as evidence to Covid enquiry is causing terror in the Cabinet Office … it is difficult to find ways to satirise this stuff … it would seem that whatever Johnson has just submitted is at least as damaging to his successors as it is to him… Schofield had an affair and lied about it … so did Johnson … Johnson lied about far more consequential things … Schofield is disgraced former TV presenter … why is Johnson never the disgraced former PM? … Schofield is a ruined, broken man … Johnson broke a country … plays the media like a fiddle, gets taxpayer to fund huge legal bills … buys a £4M house for cash …. Fights to put donors in the House of Lords…
Rupert Murdoch’s summer party
Keen to demonstrate he is still breathing … dilemma for Keith Starmer … keen to ingratiate himself with Murdoch … also reluctant to alienate his natural base …
Andrew Bridgen
… kicked out of Tory Party … sole Reclaim MP … predicted other Tories would be won over by Laurence Pox …remain in splendid isolation … Tories so unpopular people will vote for anybody who is not Tory …
John Simpson
BBC world affairs correspondent for 35 years … criticised BBC for giving too much air time to Brexiters … powers want the viewers to see him as little as possible…
Australia / NZ trade deals
… negligible contribution to British economy … not a good deal for the UK … gave far too much away for too little…
National Conservatives
Knew their name would be abbreviated to NatCees and did it on purpose … human breach of the Ministerial Code Sue Ellen Braverman…
Do you support killing children? Suella and Priti do.
Pandemic
We are not ready for the next pandemic … Arcturus is the latest variant of Covid 19 …surged across India …detected in more than 30 countries … pathogen is still mutating …We cannot afford to drop our guard … 227,000 fatalities recorded in Britain to date … compare to 454,000 Brits killed in WW2 … twice the toll of the virus but over six years not three … Lady Hallett’s inquiry … reported as Westminster soap opera … Richy Scumbag might reflect on Richard Nixon … reluctance to hand over tapes led to impeachment … For PM who promised ‘integrity, professionalism and accountability to make himself vulnerable to charge of cover up is madness … preparations for a future pandemic are in a wretched state … when not if … we are not ready … infrastructure developed during the crisis is being dismantled or defunded … deliberate government policy … Westminster recrimination and desperate Tory infighting …
Covid 19 inquiry
Commissions in other countries finished their reports…. In complexity, political sensitivity…. only Chilcott Iraq inquiry compares … most sensational hearings will come Autumn 2023 … focus on Johnson and his inner circle …’why did you skip five meetings …. did you really suggests you should be injected with Covid on TV … obtaining evidence has become a circus … Witness statements patchy and late … silence and obfuscation … Inquiry is still in the dark … Britain was led into a crisis by an inadequate and distracted PM …
Richy Scumbag
Setting up a public enquiry then withholding evidence looks like an admission of guilt … Scumbag’s approval ratings at -21 point (20 points worse than Keith Starmer’s) … Scumbag accepted that his election defeat is inevitable … what is happening in Scumbag’s government is so ill thought-through that it is hard to believe that a clever Goldman Sachs man is in charge … furlough loans … undue generosity to fake businesses that have since disappeared … no hope of being repaid … Tory party riven with divides for decades … Scumbag as reluctant as his predecessors to confront them … striving to keep far right Sue Ellen Braverman lovers sweet, while attempting to please more moderate Tories … grandstanding … not impressive … other European countries benefitting hugely … another Brexit ‘freedom’ that is damaging … glaring evidence that government takes a blinkered view ….dogmatic approach leads government in indefensible positions … selfish … short-sighted … if Tories sneak an election victory … he will find himself confronting the same problems, only even more deep seated … sound bites will have vanished along with the hopes they promised … Scumbag does not look like a man in charge … increasingly looks like one leaving after the next election for comfortable life in Santa Monica …
Economists wring their hands over seaside towns
Metropolitan politicians fret (their inhabitants were likeliest to vote for Brexit) … ‘Good Lord! This is ghastly?’ … populist tides that resulted in Brexit swelling in eastern coastal towns … fertile soil for resentment based cause …
Join us in Clacton on Sea, Thursday June 22nd, 6 pm at the Town Hall for the BBC Question Time Special. This event is only open to leave voters. It would be a pity if some rejoiners infiltrated the event … 🙂 We’ll be driving the ‘Bollocks to Brexit Mini Cooper’ to Clacton on Sea aka Brexit on Sea for the event. And we will offer a rolling keynote entitled ‘Brexit has failed‘. We’ll also be performing a suite of original songs from 6 years of anti-Brexit / pro-EU activism. And engaging with the leave voting audience in some ‘mass Brexorcisms‘. There may be some surprises. Putting the Mini back on the road has cost circa £700 plus event / travel costs. Please support our expenses in mounting this audacious project here.
Photography by Christina Jansen – photographer for Mohammed Ali, Robert Plant, Joan Bakewell, Andrew Marr and many others. Click on the Mini to view her work.
The Brexit iceberg
The iceberg explains the link between all the things that are at the front of people’s minds with the largely invisible causation factors of Brexit, COVID 19, Russia and, of course, climate change. I have not mentioned climate change in the diagram, as it is a global factor. It does of course also play its part unless on is also a climate denier and Brexiteer. I have sized COVID 19 and Russia smaller than Brexit. They are actually less significant factors in the medium-long term. The government is now unable to use COVID 19 as a mask for the state of things in Brexit Britain.
However, COVID 19 definitely contributed to increased NHS waiting times, but few of the other factors. The invasion of Ukraine by Russia contributes to food price inflation through costs of fertiliser etc. But even here, Brexit is the main causation with a 15% hit on food prices.
The Brexit Iceberg. Melting rapidly. Click to support us.
Today, Boris Johnson has been ‘sentenced’ to 90 days hard Brexit labour. As with everything, Johnson escapes every time. Lord Andrew Adonis of The European Movement was wrong when he said “If Boris goes, Brexit goes”. It’s not true. In fact Johnson has got off scot free, leaving Brexit as a dirty protest on Britain, with no one in any of the main parties willing to claim responsibility for the Brexit mess, even less willing to do anything about rectifying it.
Of course the Tories are the major cause of Brexit. But Labour are not without their share of blame. Keir Starmer is perfectly able to say that Brexit has failed at this time. He can point to plenty of evidence from UK in a Changing Europe and other places. But he refuses to do so. Accordingly, he runs the risk of having his clothes stolen by a desperate Rishi Sunak. See our article Hard Labour on Scottish Bylines for more on this topic.
Not grasping the nettle. Sir Keir Starmer. Image by P Paton. Click to read the article.
Join us at The Question Time Special for the purposes of mass Brexorcisms. We need people outside the venue and some inside. Get in touch by e-mailing us at reboot@brexitrage.com Brexit has failed. Let’s make sure Brexit is placed in a grave where it belongs !!
Photography by Christina Jansen – photographer for Mohammed Ali, Robert Plant, Joan Bakewell, Andrew Marr and many others. Click on the Mini to view her work.
Brexit has failed. Nigel said so. Where are you Sir Keir?
Clacton has good facilities. Click to support the project.
Clacton also has good facilities for those seeking to drown themselves in Brexit glory.
We’ll be performing this at Clacton – our satirical song about Brexit Buyer’s remorse as seen though the eyes of a Brexiteer.
Our latest edition of the Daily Maul covers the massive litter tray of dead cats generated by Boris Johnson, Liz Truss, Rishi Sunakered and Nadine Dorries. This in the wake of Johnson’s long overdue fall from grace for killing 30 000 people unnecessarily and giving us an oven burned bungled Brexit. Please see our fact and fiction checker to tell the difference between facts and fictions in our edition of the Maul. Grab a copy of Private Eyelines for more of this stuff. Fight fascism with satire – the one thing they cannot take away from us.
Click on a dead cat to read Private Eyelines.
HARD FACTS
FACT : Liz Truss went on GB News (Gammon Balderdash News) last night, appearing to forget that she supported Remain in 2016. Her parents have disowned her. The kids must be next. Although she has not formed the BUSS (Boris-Truss) party, stranger things have happened. The Truss is out on manoeuvres to kill little Rishi Sunak along with Mad Nads and some other Tories.
Liz Truss was a Remainer Liz Truss backed REMAIN Liz Truss tweeted in 2016: I am backing Remain as I believe it is in Britain's economic interest and means we can focus on vital economic and social reform at home.
FACT : Boris Johnson was found guilty of lying repeatedly by a committee comprised mainly of his own party members. No amount of gaslighting or dead cattery can cover this up. Read the Select Committee report.
FACT : Boris Johnson started new job as Daily Mail columnist the day after the Select Committee (aka Kangaroo court) report found he lied repeatedly to Parliament. They have clearly picked the right man to lie for them. This itself is another breach of the Ministerial Code. His first report concerns the vitally unimportant fact that he takes drugs to stop him raiding the fridge at night for cheese and chorizo. He needs really to take drugs to stop his infatuation with fridges …
The real Daily Maul. Click to read the satire version.
FACT : Boom and Brexit Busted : Mark Carnage reports on Brexit Carnage and its effects on inflation in the Telegraph. YES, the Telegraph !! There was no Boris Brexit Boom. Carney was former Bank of England chief.
Click on the image to read the ‘Telegravda’.
FACT : Jacob Rees-Mogg and the other few remaining nutters on the deck of the SS Brexit are now calling for the removal of our sovereignty. Sovereignty was the very thing that they said we had to have back as the main reason for Brexit. This by the genius Cold War Steve:
Click to see Cold War Steve’s work.
FACT : Rishi Sunak has resorted to wearing brown boots that are nearly bigger than his torso in order to look like a ‘hard man’. Caught smiling on camera whilst the police raided a home yesterday in the traditional racist smirk pioneered by Priti Patel and gold-plated by Suella Braverman.
FICTION : As far as we know, Boris Johnson has not ordered Carrie to deliver a new baby on Monday as a distraction when Parliament vote to accept the Select Committee report. Nor has Nadine Dorris moved back into nursing, or delivered a Cesarian section. However, if I were Carrie, I would not let Mad Nads near her.
By Denison Chapman from the Netherlands. Soundbites are not free. In a dangerous world, crawling under a mythical Brexit comfort blanket is not a solution. It’s a slowly evolving economic and political disaster. The sunlit uplands and other fairy tales like levelling up and the northern powerhouse required billions if not trillions over decades, whereas politicians delivered soundbites for votes. [1]
Geopolitics I
If you believe the news creeping out of Ukraine the Russian forces are in trouble.
And some of the fires in western United States were started by individuals of Russian background.
Yesterday I sat in on a short seminar and it included a summary of a book about to be released stating that from the Russian government perspective the cold War didn’t start in 1945 and end in 1992. It started in the revolution and has never ended.
Russian spies, placemen that include most of the oligarchs we have welcomed, plus the excessively large numbers of “diplomats” have been “strategically directed” to undermine Western democracies. So what we have seen via Carole Cadwalladr regarding the exploitation of social media is just the tip of an iceberg[2].
Russian exploitation of social media is just the tip of the iceberg
And as this all unfolds and perhaps Russia collapses China will pick up the pieces. In effect as of now Russia can’t act without a tacit nod from China. For Russia Ukraine is a last hurrah. If it loses Russia will
This there is a deep lack of understanding and naivety in the West in politicians, military, and most of the population. Far less in the case in countries like Finland and Poland who are closer to the history.
A retired army friend just asked regarding Ukraine if Taiwan is next. Do we just worry more as we get older or is the world spinning out of control? When he was born the population of the World was 2.5 billion, now it’s 8 billion. Many of the problems we face including climate change originate from those two numbers. Taiwan is strategically as important to the West as Ukraine. An invasion of Taiwan would deprive the world of microprocessors, as COVID did.
I wonder if it means that Taiwan is next?
The USA and Japan and South Korea at least appear to have woken up regarding Taiwan. A conflict that was it to involve Russia and China acting in concert would be apocalyptic. There is also another factor. Both Russian and China are facing severe demographic changes. population decline and aging. This is causing internal pressures which bigging up external enemies and maybe a war is designed to maintain public support for the regime. China’s economy is morphing to one less reliant on exports to the west. For them it’s a balancing act but they have a huge home market, plus the potential gains of a Russian and central Eurasian market to offset any western losses or sanctions.
The Chinese “Belt and Road” scheme is already indicative of Chinese ambitions. For China it will be domestic pressures that determine if and when they try to take Taiwan. Even if they fail the semiconductor industries will likely be destroyed.
Brexit has drained the coffers and national energy
Despite the claims of “taking back control”; Despite the fact that we divert significant treasure into defence spending; Despite that its two main arguments were to cut immigration and restore the green and pleasant sunlit uplands. Brexit has drained the coffers and drained the national energy. The first has become considerably worse and the second requires loads of non-existent cash to treat the symptoms.
Russia and Covid just exposed the sorry state of a nation that is lost and that might well, in a last gasp of Empire, break into its constituent parts of Scotland, Ireland, Wales and England.
Brexit was the equivalent of winning the booby prize at the UK’s national jumble sale where the the only winners were political cronies of the government and enemies of the state.
Three Essential Actions to Regain Control and Restore the Economy to Growth
A New National Political Settlement
A Modern Constitution founded on Proportional Representation[3]
A Commitment to Rejoin the European Single Market
Geopolitics II – Russian Collapse – Yugoslavia only ten times bigger
A map of Yugoslavia.
Most in the west see Russia as we did the USSR as one country. We were all surprised when Yugoslavia overnight descended into chaos, civil war and ultimately into its constituent parts with their diverse ethnicities, histories, religions, and cultures.
Well, Russia, divided into 89 federal subjects, is potentially Yugoslavia only ten times bigger. Spanning 14 time zones with the vast majority of the population in the European west.
Of the 89, nine are krais. Oblasts, another type of federal subject, are legally identical to krais and the difference between a political entity with the name “krai” or “oblast” is purely traditional, similar to the commonwealths in the United States; both are constituent entities equivalent in legal status.
Many of those regions are already restless and, in the past, have been subject to Russian repression.
In a recent development, on May 17, Russia and Iran officially signed an agreement for the construction of the Rasht-Astara railway (Kremlin.ru, May 17). This railway project holds immense significance as it addresses a key missing link in the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC), or Middle Corridor. The INSTC is a multi-modal network of shipping, rail and road routes for moving freight between India, Iran, Azerbaijan, Russia, Central Asia and Europe. As two of the most sanctioned countries in the world, both Russia and Iran are interested in finding alternative routes to diversify their export and import routes as well as circumvent Western sanctions. In this context, since the beginning of Russia’s war against Ukraine, the INSTC’s strategic importance has significantly increased for Moscow and Tehran.
For both countries, the INSTC is central to replacing European trade with Asian markets, facilitating a pivot to the East and providing an alternative to the traditional sea route through the Suez Canal. For Moscow, the route provides opportunities to improve its economic relations with India, which has increased its oil imports from Russia by about 2,200 percent since the beginning of the war (The Moscow Times, March 28). For Iran, the development of the corridor offers a lucrative opportunity to earn transit fees, estimated at about $100 per ton of goods passing through its territory, which is comparable to the cost of one barrel of oil. (Mehr News Agency, August 1, 2022).
The corridor has three primary routes. The trans-Caspian direction crosses through the Caspian Sea as well as the territories of its littoral states. To the west, the route runs along the Caspian’s western coast, passing through Russia and Azerbaijan. In the east, the route passes through Iran, enters Turkmenistan and then crosses through Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan (Silk Road Briefing, April 4). For Moscow and Tehran, the western route holds greater significance as compared to the trans-Caspian and eastern routes. This is primarily due to the fact that the western parts of both countries encompass the most densely populated regions. As a result, this route presents favorable prospects for fostering trade relations and stimulating the emergence of new business sectors.
Furthermore, the western route is crucial to the Middle Corridor in terms of capacity and investment. The share of its potential freight traffic is around 60 percent, and it is expected to receive approximately 69 percent of future investments (Eurasian Development Bank, November 30, 2021, October 26, 2022). In fact, this passage has recently seen an increase in freight traffic. Rail transport along the INSTC increased by more than 40 percent to 4 million tons from January to May 2023. Most of the volume was carried along the western route, which accounted for 3.6 million tons during this period, representing a growth of 37.9 percent as compared to the same period in 2022 (Kommersant, June 5).
Read Reboot Britain for more on Russian influence on Brexit. Click on the red wall.
In this regard, growing cooperation between Tehran and Moscow reflects their interests in developing both the hard and soft infrastructure of the western route. In terms of hard infrastructure, the agreement on the construction of the Rasht-Astara railway will play a key role in improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the INSTC. According to the agreement, Russia has allocated 1.6 billion euros ($1.71 billion) for the development of its segment of the railway, which is planned to be completed within 48 months. Iran will pay for its portion of this from transit fees once the route becomes operational. After completion, Iran will be able to connect its railway network with the South Caucasus countries, Russia and Northern European countries, which will reduce the travel time for cargo transportation from Asia to the European Union by four weeks (Silk Road Briefing, April 20, 2022, May 18, 2023).
Russia and Iran also reached an agreement on improving soft infrastructure. They agreed to facilitate and expedite customs procedures and provide assistance to businesses to increase the volume of trade being transported along the route. In addition, Iran offered services for authorized Russian businesses to sign contracts with their Iranian counterparts within the framework of the “Green Customs Corridor” (Mehr News Agency, May 17).
Although the new agreements to develop the INSTC’s western route have the potential to help reduce delivery times and the costs of cargo, both political and technical challenges remain in the long-term development of the corridor. Regarding technical difficulties with hard infrastructure, differences between Russia and Iran on track gauges and rolling stock dimensions complicate smooth transportation via the railway route. Moreover, the lack of transit wagons and poorly developed infrastructure on Iran’s part due to geographical constraints and lack of investment create further problems for the INSTC’s efficiency (Silk Road Briefing, April 4).
Moreover, Iran’s current transit capacity is less than 10 million tons. In this context, the Russian and Iranian target of increasing shipments through the western route to as much as 15 million tons of cargo per year by 2030 does not seem feasible. In fact, according to the Eurasian Development Bank, INSTC container traffic could be as high as 5.9 to 11.9 million tons by 2030, when considering all three primary routes and all modes of transport (Eurasian Development Bank, October 26, 2022; Financial Tribune, March 12; TASS, May 17).
Finally, the disparity in freight rates, lack of a single window system for customs control and absence of a harmonization of procedures lead to increased delivery times and costs, as well as reduce the predictability of arrival times, leading to further delays (Eurasian Development Bank, October 26, 2022).
Politically, Western sanctions against Iran and Russia and increasing uncertainty in domestic policies have deterred some countries and international companies from using Russia and Iran as transit countries. Furthermore, sanctions have also had a negative impact on attracting private companies to invest in Russian and Iranian infrastructure, which requires massive investment capital for developing the INSTC (35 and 34 percent, respectively). In this context, the national budgets of the two countries are the only sources of financing, which have also been limited due to the deteriorating economic situation in both countries (Eurasian Development Bank, October 26, 2022).
Simmering tensions between Iran and Azerbaijan represent another political challenge, which could limit the development of the INSTC’s western branch. At the moment, Azerbaijani infrastructure is the most used and developed part of the corridor. As a result, further deterioration of relations between Tehran and Baku could negatively affect further development, especially in improving soft infrastructure (see EDM, April 19; Trend.az, May 18).
In sum, both Russia and Iran are deeply interested in developing the INSTC, especially its western branch, as this section passes through the most populous provinces of both countries and has the highest potential freight-carrying capacity. Yet, despite the recent agreement on the construction of the Rasht-Astara railway and the easing of customs problems, political and technical difficulties may prevent the corridor from reaching its maximum potential in the long term. This reveals an interesting paradox: Russia and Iran are the main drivers of the INSTC’s development; however, at the same time, the increasing sanctions against both countries and problematic relations with their neighbours make them the main obstacles to future development of this corridor.
Our latest edition of the Daily Excess covers the stories that the mainstream media will not print. Go Nads covers the fact that Brexit has failed. Sunak’s reputation is left in tatters and the main winner is Johnson’s hairdresser and his body double Michael Fabricate. For more headlines and hard facts to defeat Johnson’s lies like this, grab your copy of our book Private Eyelines – Have I got fake Brexit news for EU.
In the end, it was Boris’ hair that brought hime down …. click to read the book.
We must ensure that this means the end of the Tories in Uxbridge and Bedfordshire. Please support our Crowdfunder to do this. We plan a full campaign costing £1200 in terms of travel, accommodation and resources, over a period of several weeks
We also plan to launch an attack on the BBC Question Time Special in Clacton on June 22. Please support the initiative by giving us a donation towards costs via Paypal. We need a minimum of £500 to pay for garage costs, tyres, tax travel costs, flags, stickers etc. We will also need a team on the ground and maybe security from the Alt-Right.
Johnson has evaded the select committee by resigning before it reports on the findings of its review. This means that Johnson has wasted £250 000 of public money in legal fees. Please sign the petition to ask for YOUR MONEY back.
Meanwhile, Rishi Sunak’s stated values of integrity, professionalism and accountability are in tatters, having been forced to give Johnson his honours list in exchange for his silence on Sunak’s dubious tax affairs. Johnson gave these honours to the Downing Street hairdresser (no this is not a joke) and a list of cronies including those who broke lockdown rules at the Partygate events. Still more of these events are coming to light. 30 000 people died unnecessarily from Johnson’s decisions. He should really be in the Hague facing trial. Of course, it must be noted that Johnson has once again escaped all responsibility for Brexit carnage, aided and abetted by Keir Starmer who follows rather than leads at every step. Since the Tories and Brexit are dead, our efforts should be mostly focused on Labour. It would be a crying shame to get the Tories out only to find that we are left with a red Brexit, indistinguishable from a blue one. Even the left wing press are now calling for Starmer to turn in the wake of the fact that Brexit has failed. Just today we learn from Greg in Northern Ireland that UK-based suppliers or distributors of medicines should prepare for different packaging for medicines to be supplied to UK and EU markets from 1 January 2025. Brexit delivers more red tape and cost rather than the promised Brexit freedoms!
Rishi Sunak and Suella Braverman’s strategy – “when the boot comes in”.
One day of Caroline Lucas’ life beats one year of a Tory life … perhaps that is an underestimate … I salute her on the occasion of her decision to stand down from politics in order to focus on more important priorities. In global terms, climate change is the single most important problem we face, with Brexit accelerating our sleepwalk into oblivion. Caroline has spoken in Parliament without fear or favour. I can only imagine the nuclear levels of hatred that this attracts from career politicians on all sides. In fact, I am aware of some of this. Labour contacts in her constituency despise her for standing up to property developers, by insisting on good environmental standards in construction and town planning. The pressure must be unbearable. Consequentially, I imagine Caroline has decided that there might be better ways to save planet earth. We shall see.
As I reach the autumn of my life, it seems right and proper to consider the legacy that one leaves behind. I have always had I basic hippy instinct that has guided me towards trying to leave the world in a better place than when I arrived. We can all do better always in life. Accordingly, I produced a piece of music in the hope that it inspires people to do better on our environmental stewardship and concern for planet earth.
I fear that planet earth may have given up on us …
but we must not give up on planet earth …
The piece was inspired by Greta Thunberg, to impress upon people the importance that everyone can do something to make the world a better place in terms of sustainability and environmental action. The music was set to film by a fantastic videographer called Al Clouston. The most important contribution you can make is to share this article and film widely with world leaders and people of influence.
‘How do we want to be remembered’ reminds us that we are all in charge of our own destiny. We are all in this together. If we choose to act in smaller or greater ways, we can make an impact for planet earth. Caroline Lucas epitomises the title of this piece of music.
With love and respect for whatever you choose to do next Caroline
By Don Adamson, Brexorcist in Chief, the Brexit Bunker, Barnsley.
This week’s homework: Discuss the following statement – ‘Woke’ is a term that Neo Nazi Nonces use to describe their moral and intellectual superiors.
This week’s quotes:
Tory Trumpectory
Even Matt Hancock warned that the Tory Party would be finished if a Trumpian takeover was allowed to happen … If Tory party allows itself to taken over by a right wing version of Momentum … its future looks bleak …
Nigel Farage’s admission that ‘Brexit has failed shows once again that for Nigel Garbage it is always somebody else’s fault … has not delivered any benefits … totally mismanaged … The new Real Communism … just because it has all gone wrong does not mean it is a bad idea … what has gone wrong has done so in exactly the ways that every expert warned … Brexiters got their version of Brexit … Thick Lizzie attempted to deliver the Brexit that Nigel Garbage had been talking up for years … it exploded on contact with reality … instead of accepting that Brexit was always an idiotic fantasy the Nigel Garbages of the world scold others for failing to deliver … as effective as scolding the shopkeeper for selling a losing lottery ticket when you wanted a winner …
Two cheeks of the same arsehole.
Nat-C party
NatCees “Watching last week’s NATcees conference was a surreal as it was disturbing … Speakers sounded very whiny …. Tories have been in office for 13 years … got the hard Brexit that they wanted … an extraordinary lack of responsibility…. … and increasing sense from people running the show that someone else is in charge … publicly sulking that the job is hard … have become so detached from reality … they look at what they have done without realising that they did it … Evangelical Christians seem to have forgotten that they worship a homeless Rabbi Jew, a refugee who spoke Aramaic, was frequently homeless, lived in poverty, preached forgiveness, tolerance and loving one’s neighbour…
— Reboot Britain – Rage Against The Brexit Machine (@BrexitRage) June 6, 2023
National Illness Service
National Health Service “Hospital waiting lists spiral beyond 7M … patients wait months or even years for treatment … 300,000 adults wait for social care assessment … 2.5M Brits are out of work because they are sick … NHS staff leaving in droves … the country’s recent record of revolutionary change does not inspire confidence” … Britain spends less on health care than France or Germany … in the next 25 years the number of Brits aged 85+ will double … makes no sense … the equivalent of buying more fire extinguishers while dismantling the smoke alarms … Britain would rather forget about Liz Truss. She just won’t lettuce … NHS is in grave difficulties … few will forget how many patients died waiting for ambulances and lying in hospital corridors … one in eleven posts in the NHS is vacant … fewer hospital beds per person than almost any rich country, fewer CT scanners ..
Health outcomes lag behind peers … worst five year survival rates for killer diseases…. life expectancy lags behind … Britain invested the least capital per person in health care in 2015 … nurses, junior doctors, others … suffered a decade of real terms pay cuts … England now spends the lowest share of health budget on dentistry of any country in Europe … Britain is the third fattest country in Europe … if everybody was healthy weight … could save NHS £1.4B a year … reform technology … there is an awful lot of work to do … bungled implementation … NHS has a long list of problems to tackle …staff retention is poor. Politicians still liable to meddle, apart from Johnson who just hides in fridges when there is work to be done …
A stitch up in time saves nine …
Turncoats
This week’s quote: “Tom Tugendhat is new Security Minister at the Home Office … Remainer turned Leaver … holds dual British and French citizenship … has stake in two companies awarded £17.8M worth of government contracts … Accurx awarded 3576,458 contract to provide electronic communications for GP practices in … also participates £120M contract … for technology services … ambivalent on Brexit … complained how bad things were getting …
Industry “Britain’s semi-conductor industry show the bind the country is in … Britain’s announcement looks anaemic … Britain has a smattering of domestic chip firms, it lacks a big manufacturer … Can the government’s latest strategy move the needle? … Even its defenders concede it is unlikely to change things… Britain’s claim to be ‘world leader’ in tech is true only in the sense that it is blazing a trail for non-democracies to pass repressive laws…
Science, Tech and Environmental impacts of Brexit. It ain’t pretty.
Sick man of Europe
Economy … little –if any – good news in the figures … core inflation at its highest rate since 1992. … Rising mortgage costs and stubbornly high inflation… will be wealthier than the UK by 2030 … Eastern Europe has been an economic underperformer for centuries … there is plenty of room for a surge … Poland did everything it could to get into the EU at earliest opportunity … fought to be as European as possible … UK has not even recovered to its pre Covid size … UK bouncing along the bottom for 15 years. UK productivity last grew this slowly in the 18th century…. on top of that we had Brexit … Britain needs to reform and go for growth … even if it had all those things it would still be outside the EU which is a deal breaker … we all benefit from a wealthier Europe … An increasingly erratic Tory government in Westminster …
New Brexit treatments available from Jacob Rees-Mogg on the NHS.
Shameful behaviour
Government’s immigration policy is incoherent … Brits want more nurses, doctors, fruit pickers, carers, academics, computer whizzes and students … Tories have come up with an impeccably botched response … Tories pledged to cut immigration … has instead overseen an immigration increase to a record level … Immigration has increased sharply since the Brexit vote … The government could crack down on fruit pickers but farmers would scream. Few voters would thank a government that turns away nurses. Cutting immigrations comes at a cost that voters show no willingness to pay
Daily Mail Richard Littlejohn … salary £1M a year … shoutiest Daily Mail shouty man … contends that civil service and renegade Tories are working to destroy Tory government … could not name a single one of these dastardly plotters … because they do not exist … Desperate.
Social impacts of Brexit – well worth 10 minutes of your time.
Johnsonism
Johnson deranged Tories risk destroying themselves over Johnson … much energy expended on artificial intelligence … no less spectacular growth of the other 21st century phenomenon: stupidity … Why do so many Tories want to bring back Johnson? … trousering millions for speaking engagements and memoirs … politics as gruesome showbiz … jaded cabaret act … betrayal narrative is hardening in Tory Party … Johnson is Tory Party future … new lockdown breaches … In a rational world this would be bad news for Johnson … deranged dystopia of Tory town … noisily presented by militant Borisians as evidence of foul play … manifest absurdity of such a disgraced figure making a comeback is eclipsed by the intoxicating myth of a great man felled by lesser mortals … eight cabinet ministers called for his return to Downing St … growing marked in increasingly desperate Tory Party for a simple solution to a huge electoral problem …
Honey I shredded the evidence.
Sunakered
Richy Scumbag project has disastrously failed … floundering abjectly in the real world Tories are seeking solace in magical thinking … conveniently forget that dragged the government into an ethical sewer … many travesties and scandals … He ought to be a political pariah … example of political culture in bad shape … nostalgia at its most corrosive. It ought to be a cause for anxiety far beyond the Tory Party… Fees for Eton … £15,432 each half which means thrice yearly … does not stretch to fractions…
BIG FOOT Sunak thinks that it’s agreeable to spend £50 000 on helicopters EVERY DAY in the middle of a cost of living crisis.
Brexiter’s Bible
Even Express readers see the light … universal consensus that Brexit was a terrible idea … Brexiter’s Bible, the Daily Express … declared that two thirds of its readers consider Brexit to be a failure … even that unflushable turd, Nigel Garbage, agrees … it is only a failure if you were naive enough to believe that Brexit was MEANT to make things better … prior to becoming the Brexiter’s Bible the Express sustained itself as the in-house magazine for posthumous stalkers of Princess Diana …
The Brexit Bible.
Fog on the Tyne
Teesside Scandal Richy Scumbag claims ‘it is the Tories who are delivering for Tyneside’ … even Gove’s panel should be able to work out that the no risk, free money bonanza … is delivering a lot more for a few select Teessiders than for the rest …
Travel delays Electronic borders crashed … latest fiasco … lamentable attempts bring entry points into the 21st century…
Pip Pip Don Adamson Medway Delta (Retired) Brexorcist and Saboteur First Class
Do you want to save the ‘Bollocks to Brexit’ Mini Cooper from the scrap yard? We need funds to take ‘Johnson’ the mini on the road around UK and Europe to remind people that Brexit has failed. The car has generated significant mainstream media publicity for the Rejoin / anti-Brexit cause. Accordingly, now that less than 1/5th of British people think that Brexit was worth it, we plan to take the car on tour to local groups for the purpose of mass Brexorcisms. Our visits can be accompanied by a musical protest and motivational speeches.
3 Dec 2019 – London, UK – Minis in Essex Street, London in a stunt organised and crowdfunded by anti-brexit campaigning group EU Flag Mafia.Arrested by Essex Police.3 Dec 2019 – London, UK – Outside Tate Britain, a stunt organised and crowdfunded by anti-brexit campaigning group EU Flag Mafia.The Stop Brexit Job organised by EU Flag Mafia.
This story went across all mainstream media in UK, Ireland and Europe. It went as far as the New York Times and Australia !! It’s a superior return on your investment.
We have taken the car from Dominic Cummings house to Barnard Castle to check our eyesight. Also to Brussels, and all round Britain. The car, codenamed ‘Johnson’ was stopped by Essex Traffic Policeman PC Smith, in a rage on the M25 motorway. Smith asked us to remove the signage on the car on the hard shoulder of the M25, putting the police officer and the passengers at risk of death. Subsequently, Smith has not been located by Essex Police some three years after we provided his full details to the force … All that is needed is political will to change the ongoing ‘Britastrophe‘.
In the wake of Rishi Sunak’s attempts to cover up the COVID inquiry, I spoke with Marina Purkiss about ‘Johnson’s revenge’ on Rishi Sunak. Marina asked whether Boris Johnson is playing a blinder with his recent offer to release notebooks and WhatsApp messages to the COVID inquiry? And just how much of a threat do people think Johnson is to Sunak? Listen to my dialogue with Marina here:
Click on the image to listen to the interview with Marina on LBC
If I were charged with murdering 30 000 people and asked to go to court, would it be agreeable if I were to dictate what evidence was submitted to that court?
I am divided. A tiny bit of me wants to expose Johnson. I said jokingly that at least we would know how many kids he had! Yet the issues we face as a country are far more important than taking revenge on any one person or any reproductive trivia. At least 30 000 vulnerable people died unnecessarily at the hands of Johnson, Hancock et al. The truth must be heard and justice done. This is not a Philip Schofield styled media fest, it is a serious matter. So here’s how I see Johnson’s intervention and timing:
Johnson’s revenge imperative
Johnson is a single celled organism – with one simple metric for his decisions – what is good for Boris Johnson. This will be guiding his decision to release the information to the inquiry. I sense that he thinks that he will gain first mover advantage over Sunak by acting now. Remember that strategy according to Johnson is what appears on the front pages of the Daily Mail etc. the day after he opens his mouth.
Johnson is also a reliable liar. The devil is always in the detail and, at present, Johnson has only offered to release WhatsApp messages from his current phone, from mid 2021. Many of the important decisions on herd immunity, putting infected patients into care homes etc. were made in 2020. Another piece of fudge has since been introduced … that his old phone must not be restarted, as it may release information to hackers … there are plenty of solutions to this problem such as Faraday cages. Experts judge the risks to be extremely low anyway. As always with Johnson, I smell a rat.
Let’s remember it’s about political choices, not parties or personalities.
Johnson the disruptor
I seriously doubt Johnson’s ability to construct a coherent plan to replace Sunak, mainly because detailed planning is not Johnson’s forte and, in any case, the situation is complex and fluid. However, Johnson is a disruptor and an opportunist. Accordingly, I favour the idea that he has done this simply to create chaos and then hope to profit from what emerges. Johnson’s sense of hubris and supremacy may well make him think that he can replace Sunak and comeback for a glorious second term. However, I find myself in agreement with Ian Dale who also appeared on the programme. Johnson has had a toxic effect on his party and his star is fading fast compared with 2019 when he lied to ‘get Brexit done’ by putting it in a microwave oven, gas mark 4.
The Tory party is also ruthless once someone is of no further use to them. As such, I suspect that analysts and advisors have gamed the various Johnson renaissance scenarios on electoral success. The COVID issue also changed everything. 30 000 unnecessary deaths arising from Johnson’s deliberate act of putting infected COVID patients into care homes, based on Dominic Cummings’ obsession with herd immunity. Alternative choices were available.
Are you Dying for Boris? Download our Russian inspired piece of music and support our work by clicking the image.
Wishful thinking
I confess that I want Johnson back in power. In case you think that I’m losing my mind, let me explain. Johnson has never taken responsibility for anything in his life. His return as PM would mean he would have to take responsibility for the impact of Brexit and COVID. Rishi Sunak dodges responsibility for both, as they were not his doing. But I very much doubt I’ll get my wish via Johnson’s revenge. We’ll have to settle the matter through the courts and via elections if the British people will not rise up to say that ‘Enough is Enough’.
Johnson’s revenge will strike a hammer blow to Sunak. Whether it is a knock out blow remains to be seen. It is entirely fair for Baroness Hallett to see the evidence and for her and her team to decide what is relevant and what irrelevant. After all, that is their job as professionals. They will want to decide how well decisions were made and how COVID was prioritised against other goals. We already know that medical evidence was not at the top of the charts from recent releases. Johnson preferred to meet members of the right wing press to discuss newspaper headlines and sales over scientists, statisticians and sages. This is the wrong prioritisation.
Johnson’s COVID strategy : Science unimportant, right wing media relations priceless.
Imagine being charged of a crime but insisting that the judge and jury must NOT see the evidence !!
Opening the chamber of secrets
The possible reasons why Rishi Sunak does not want the COVID inquiry fit into two categories : internal combustion and external corruption.
Internalcombustion : The WhatsApp trails may reveal a dysfunctional web of relationships with media, COVID party plans, lying to the Queen and avoidable deaths from Rishi Sunak’s “Eat out to help out” scheme. Worst of all, it may expose the blood letting that comes from the chronic internecine warfare inside the Tory party. Some of this may be considered irrelevant information. However, if the balance of internal combustion : focusing on the pandemic is such that decisions were missed, avoided or delayed, such information would rightly be considered as relevant. The strain on Tory party cohesion may be impossible to endure. This may explain Sunak’s attempt to try to bury the COVID inquiry.
Externalcorruption. We may learn how pub landlords were considered to be competent players in the PPE game, when existing medical device companies were ignored. We may also learn more about the £37 billion spaffed on PPE which did not work. Then Russian involvement in Brexit. How COVID was used to mask Brexit carnage. How the Tories briefed the media to feed the public various messages … and so on.
Sunak has now threatened Johnson with the removal of taxpayer funding for his court case. This would seem to indicate that Sunak has something to hide. Of course, the taxpayer should not be funding his court costs, but that’s an entirely separate matter which we are addressing via a petition. Meanwhile Johnson continues to lie in order to save himself.
Top 10 excuses for losing WhatsApp messages ahead of @covidinquiryuk
1. Dog ate phone 2. Dropped in water 3. Broke 4. Stolen 5. Upgraded 6. Lost 7. Donated to landfill charity 8. Phone run over by “£350m a week for the NHS” bus 9. Swapped phone for pole dance 10. Dementia
