I attended the anti-racist event in Rochester. Some 200 people attended to face 15 UKIP supporters with perhaps 100 police in attendance. The bill for these protests will mean more money wasted to build a better Britain (The Farage Riots of 2024 cost £32 million). This year’s flagshagging events will cost more. The flagshaggers marched up to Rochester Castle, not to pour boiling oil and shower us with arrows from the turrets, but for a much needed toilet break after a heavy session in Wetherspoons … They then departed. MUCH MORE IMPORTANTLY, I bumped into the Labour Party MP Tristan Osbourne and met with the Green Party of Medway and Lib Dems at the event.

Labour in vain

I congratulated Tristan on Labour’s decision to talk about Brexit after snuffing out all conversation about a major source of our malaise in the General Election. See Labour GE Post-Mortem for more detail.

I then pointed out that ‘one swallow does not a summer make’. Tristan agreed and responded by saying that Labour would be making a statement about it in the budget. Whilst I fully understood why he could not tell me what the statement might be, I took away the idea that it may well be more ‘logical incrementalism’ rather than a fundamental reversal of the Brexit mess. He hinted at this saying that he wanted Brexit reversed within his lifetime, however he is around 40 and I am 67! I pointed out that the matter was urgent and important and that death by 1000 ameliorations is still death. Faced in real life with a rapid death over a slow painful one, I’d opt for the rapid one. So it is with Brexit. Labour must act now or face the consequences.

Tristan then tried to punt the idea to me that the EU had said that we could not return until the threat of Farage had passed, meaning post 2029 at the earliest. I re-rehearsed the arguments that we had previously: This would be too late for a host of reasons explained in Reboot Britain. I also pointed out that what matters is putting in the application, not the end of the process. Frankly this was the part of the conversation I did not believe, since the EU have stated publicly that they would welcome us back on many occasions. See political capital in Reboot Britain.

Tristan’s answer reminded me of a teenager wanting to ask a girl out but does not want to get a no !! This was the least believable part of our dialogue and I don’t know what purpose Tristan thought it might serve, given my knowledge, skills and experience.

We went on to discuss the optics of Reform UK and agreed about a lot of that. It was a cordial and intelligent dialogue and I thank him for it. I explained that I’d given a keynote at MP Sadik Al-Hassan’s town hall meeting on Brexit and it turned out that he and Tristan are good friends. All in all a valuable ‘brief encounter’. I’d had a similar meeting with my Labour MP Naushabah Khan recently and she dropped similar hints that Labour would be more bold. I’d welcome it.

Zac attack

I also had a great encounter with Medway Greens and was asked why I had not joined them. I stated that I was still considering standing a cat for election locally in 2027, perhaps a green cat … What was most interesting was that there was broad agreement that Zac Polanski was a force for good in terminating the rise of the far right in Britain.

Dem Libs

The Lib Dems led the charge in terms of marshalling people at the event. I have explained to Mark Pack that since Labour are on the move re Brexit, it is time for the Lib Dems to recalibrate their position on Brexit to move the Overton Window. I do hope that they don’t miss the boat on this.

Side note: I asked a policemen early on, had they (UKIP – UK I Pee) urinated? – he seemed confused and a little disturbed. until I pointed out that this was the key metric which would determine their eventual departure back to Wetherspoons. Youth and inexperience !!