We recently went to Dover to find out what people really think about Brexit. Most now realise that they were lied to and Brexit has not delivered on the promises from the 2016 ‘brochure’. Write to your MP to demand an end to Brexit carnage. Contrary to what people believe, Brexit is far from done and it’s possible to Rejoin if we apply enough pressure. The Rejoin Party are standing 11 candidates in the London Mayoral Election, in non-competitive seats under a proportional system, so it is possible to express your view without damaging Mayor. Watch our video account of the day:
The most insightful part of our day was not recorded, when we came upon the station staff at Dover Priory rail station. Three men and one woman. The woman was born and bred in the area, had a mining family from Shepherdswell, probably voted Labour originally, but voted for Boris in 2019 on the promise of stopping immigration. She planned to vote for Reform as she felt betrayed by the Tories. As usual she was resistant to questions about being lied to (time was very short for a decent Brexorcism) and said she did not care about future generations (again this is typical of the residual hardcore Brexiteer). Her colleagues were most amused as we asked questions and gently prodded her about her underlying xenophobia (one of the other station staff was black).
This list will probably be out of date by the time it is published. Thank you to my musical chum Dr Mike Alexander for sending me this list. Fear of losing one’s seat is a powerful motivator and the Tories have run to the hills to quote Iron Maiden. Order our leaflets to end Tory rule.
Douglas Ross – Moray (announced 14/10/21)
Charles Walker – Broxbourne (announced 2/2/22)
Crispin Blunt – Reigate (announced 1/5/2022)
Mike Penning – Hemel Hempstead (announced 17/5/2022)
Adam Afriyie – Windsor (announced 22/7/2022)
Andrew Percy – Brigg and Goole (announced 8/11/2022)
Chloe Smith – Norwich North (announced 22/11/2022)
William Wragg – Hazel Grove (announced 22/11/2022)
Gary Streeter – South West Devon (announced 25/11/2022)
The popular view of Theresa May in the wake of her decision to stand down as an MP is ‘good riddance’. As always, I wish to put forward a more nuanced view. My title does not wish her dead by the way, just that she now has some peace from the swivel-headed loons on both sides of the Brexit debate. Here’s a few inconvenient facts for Remoaners and Brexiteers alike:
Sure, yes, May’s record at the Home Office was pretty terrible. The hostile environment and so on. Not as terrible as Patel, Braverman et al, but terrible. Then there was Windrush …
However, May appointed a 52:48 cabinet to respect the Brexit vote, whereas Johnson reduced the gene pool to far right nutters and sycophants. See my interview on the BBC for more on this point.
I spoke with Michel Barnier a little while back. He pointed out that May had two battles to fight. The one on Brexit and the bigger one of her own party fighting like cats in a sack. Eventually they killed her. Paul Witts nails the leadership difficulty in one pithy paragraph:
“The second most difficult thing in the world is to admit to someone that you made a mistake … that you were wrong. The most difficult thing in the world is to admit that to yourself. But as time and pandemics pass, an ever-growing number of people who voted for Brexit after being duped by dopes with red buses, are running out of other things to blame. They were promised the Nirvana of a “global Britain”. Slowly the reality is dawning, and that Nirvana is beginning to look like a scene from a gritty 1970s inner-city gangster movie … complete with outside toilets, spam fritters, rickets, and pints of warm brown ale with suspicious-looking white floaters, served in pubs with sticky carpets.” Paul Witts.
Although the only good Brexit remains (sic) a dead Brexit, Theresa May’s deal was the ‘high water mark’ of Brexit deals. Crucially it covered the economic relationship, security co-operation, cross-cutting issues and institutional arrangements that would preserve the future relationship. if you cannot now remember the details, see Institute for Government. Johnson systematically degraded May’s deal to get it through Parliament. He allowed no scrutiny of the deal using Christmas and COVID as a distraction and not even reading the contract himself. Rishi Sunak has quietly tried to restore elements of Theresa May’s deal through what I called a Pay as EU go rejoin strategy. However, ‘Logical incrementalism’ has many faults, as I pointed out in conversation with the BBC’s Jonty Bloom.
May fought her own party, saying that they would end up with no Brexit deal at all if they did not unite on more than one occasion. Mr Bullion is always on point (and pints) with points about strategy:
“My view was always that May was a fundamentally strategic establishment appointment in case Cameron lost the referendum. Hence her nickname the Submarine. My conclusion was that she was genuine and understood what was happening both to politics in general and her own party, but both Remain and Brexit ultras over played their hands, and the Brexit ultras played the Trump card.” Alan Bullion.
The illusion of control Johnson style – a fancy slogan but totally vacuous.
May did not indulge in public backstabbing of her own party. I’m pretty sure she was a tough opponent in the back rooms though.
May was socially inept. Yet, did you prefer Johnson, Truss or Sunak? What exactly is so wrong about being good at the strategy and details but rather less good at the presentation? Please write to me when you have found the perfect leader.
She was however rubbish at Grenfell and I’m not saying in any way that she was perfect before the attacks on my analysis begin.
I was shot down in flames when I suggested that Remainers should support Theresa in her last months as PM. I pointed out that we’d end up with Boris and a hard Brexit. Look what happened … ? !! The European Movement and other large Remoan groups were consumed by the visceral reactions of the mob. May stayed in the party when others fled. Can anyone imagine how hard that might be?
Theresa. You are not Mother Theresa. Nadine Dorries even pointed out that you are not a mother. However I feel you are owed some thanks for trying to hold back the tide of the swivel-headed Brexiteers.
As we continue our sleepwalk into fascism via Michael Gove’s weaponisation of protest, I was extremely saddened by the news that Tim Evans died at the age of 63 a few days ago. Tim was a great pro-EU / anti-Brexit campaigner who never missed an opportunity to influence someone. For some reason unknown to me, I decided to go for a train and bicycle road trip to Teynham (Brexit central) to reflect on his life. Thinking about Tim’s example to never miss a moment, I also decided to renew the signage on my bike. I know that such things are conversation starters, much in the way that Tim would confront even the most difficult people at Parliament. I was not dissappointed. The ticket collector on the train immediately commented on the sign:
HE “There’s no point. The French won’t let us back.”
ME “Really?
HE “My wife is French and she says it’s all over the French media.”
I could have simply said “all?” or “what’s all over the French media / which media?” but was about to leave the train so I went with a direct challenge to establish some hierarchy (Not that clever in the scheme of things but tempus fugit etc. and it stopped him in his tracks)
ME “I’ve written three books on the topic and spoken with Michel Barnier. It does not matter what the right wing media say here (or in France), I’m afraid that you are talking twaddle”
HE “It’s just that my wife is French” (he thought he could get a cheap shot in and realises that he has come up against a brick wall)
I muttered a few things more and repeated the word twaddle. He wandered off up the carriage. A few minutes later I decided to give him a card as I left the train, saying in front of several other people: “Look, have a look at the website. There’s 400 films, several thousand articles and three books there. get an education”.
On reflection I suspected that this man was a slightly desperate leaver trying to use his French wife as a human shield for his views. He was also slightly trapped by his need for courtesy as a ticket collector. I admit that my intervention was little crude, but time was short and I was in no mood for appeasement, having thought ‘what would Tim have done?’. Every conversation counts.
Bicycle signage that opens difficult conversations.
Imagine my surprise when I got off the train. A man with a can of JD and Coke approached me on the platform and got in the lift with me. I felt another unpromising conversation coming on ….
HE (looking at the bike sign) “One sign isn’t going to change anything.”
ME “I have more.”
HE “I’m just saying that one sign’s not enough”. (At this point I had thought that this chap may be another Brexiteer – how wrong I was).
I explained a little of my work and that the sign was just a very small part of the whole). He then said:
“We should have never have left”.
We then had a conversation on the platform and I offered him my card which he was very grateful for. What a great surprise and a justification of my decision to celebrate Tim’s life by upping my game a bit on a cold day in Spring.
I cycled on to The Chequers in Lewson Street without meeting anyone or discussing Brexit, giving myself a moment of peace to reflect on Tim’s passing. We were about to meet for coffee at Charlotte and Ginger in Leatherhead after Tim refused to meet Gina Miller with me, saying that he’d been badly let down by her a while back. We had agreed to restrict ourselves to looking back over performing songs together at Downing Street, driving people crazy with the Bollocks to Brexit Mini and more mayhem. Tim was a one off, much better than some of the London elites who attempt to tell us how we must behave, many of whom have never met a Brexiteer, let alone interacted with them. Tim was real force of nature who had a great sense of musical theatre and a real understanding of the use of the absurd as a way into the inner sanctums of Brexiteers. I recall that he also used to upset some of the snowflakes at Parliament with his ‘Benny Hill’ styled lyrical rewrites of popular songs. I recall people used to report Tim to me hoping I would censor him. I never did. Now we have laws against extremism as a result of appeasement!! Will the pc middle classes of middle England ever get a little bit angry or learn how to use satire to reach past people’s heads to their hearts, souls and arse souls?
Tim Evans as Sir Francis Drake – also featuring Clive Lewis R.I.P.
Morals of the stories
You can get a lot done in a little time if you are prepared.
Never assume that people cannot be persuaded.
Be visual. Find ways to start the Brexit conversation on every street corner, cafe, pub etc. This is the gentle art of Brexorcism.
Our leaflets are now ready to destroy the Tories. Please mail me at reboot@brexitrage.com to order yours. Together with your order, you will receive digital versions of the leaflet for use on social media. For local versions of the leaflet with different text please get in touch. Low res drafts below:
We have got a fantastic leaflet design for ‘non-party leaflets’ to encourage people to vote for Anyone But Conservative. These are perfectly legal under our current system. To order some leaflets for local distribution, please get in touch. The design builds on an iconic image from Pink Floyd’s “The Wall” and a withered Tory tree. Prices range from £35 inc P&P for 1000, £75 for 5000 and progressively better rates for larger orders. Included in all orders is a hi res pdf / jpg version of the leaflet for use on social media.
If you wish to make variations to the draft design below for a more local feel, we can also do that. Please get in touch with amended wording etc. via reboot@brexitrage.com
Collaborations
We have our next ZOOM meeting on Mon 11 March at 8 pm – NOTE Monday not Wednesday – open agenda but the GE will feature strongly. We will know whether the GE is to be called in May, November or January 2025 shortly after Jeremy Hunt’s tortured budget. Usual link via ZOOM.
I made a new film with a Rejoin Party member, inspired by a 50’s Sci-Fi Movie as Rishi Sunak’s power decreases in size by the day. Please share widely.
Larry knows it …
Meanwhile Brexit continues to deliver its toxic payload of destruction, socially, culturally, politically, economically, legally and environmentally. See Brexit Four Years On. Of course, getting rid of the Tories is paramount and guaranteed at this point in the cycle of things. We must therefore turn our attention to strategy. My contention is that if we rid ourselves of the Tories and end up with Brexit we will have failed to Reboot Britain. All efforts in terms of influence and persuasion must continue on Labour, now that the Tories face oblivion. Yes, it’s true that the main parties have formed a pact not to mention Brexit at a GE, but all the offspring of Brexit will be doorstep issues and Brexit will not go away just because it does not fit into polite conversation at Sunday tea.
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